Thousands of rare baby 'dinosaur' trees are under 24-hour security before going on sale in six months' time. Around 15,000 saplings of the Wollemi Pine – a tree thought to have become extinct more than two million years ago – are thriving in a greenhouse in east Cornwall. In 1994 fewer than 100 of the trees were found 125 miles west of Sydney, Australia, in the Blue Mountains – the only known examples in the world. New South Wales national parks and wildlife officer David Noble came across what has been described as the botanical find of the century in a rainforest gorge in the Wollemi national park. Before his discovery – in a secret location now protected by 24-hour guards – the only known examples of the tree were fossils dating back 175 million years. The Australian saplings are being brought on by Kernock Park Plants nursery, at Pillaton, near Saltash, which has the only UK licence to distribute and sell the trees here. The Wollemi Pine – a fern-like evergreen tree – will feature in a Jurassic-style garden exhibit by Kernock Park at the Chelsea Flower Show next May. Horticultural expert Tony Russell, who is helping to arrange the exhibit, said the discovery of the Wollemi Pine was 'like finding a living dinosaur'. 'They are the Crown Jewels of the botanical world,' he said. Richard Harnett, owner of Kernock Plants, said that at the end of the Chelsea Show 150 garden centres and nurseries would be able to release young trees of Wollemi Pine to the public for the first time. The species is regarded as one of the most vulnerable and rare on earth. And Wollemi Pine International, a charitable conservation trust set up to save the tree from extinction, is spearheading a project to raise saplings from the trees in the wild and make them commercially available across the world. This will reduce the risk of uncontrolled exploitation of the wild population. Attempts have been made by outsiders to discover the location of the Blue Mountain site. The trust will produce revenue which will go into both protecting the wild population and establishing a research programme to look at how this tree has managed to survive through 17 Ice Ages. Mr Russell, former head forester of the Westonbirt national arboretum in Gloucestershire, said the Wollemi Pine was 'very much a tree for the 21st century'. 'It has great conservation value. Each person who buys and plants one will be doing something very positive for the environment. 'It is the perfect tree to grow in a climate-warming Britain. It loves being pruned and is just as happy being grown in a pot on a patio as it is in the open ground.' The Wollemi Pine can grow up to 130ft high in the wild, with a trunk diameter of more than three feet. The pines can survive temperatures from 23F-133F (minus 5C to 45C) and are expected to withstand even cooler temperatures.
