Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (National Recovery Plan for the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis)) Instrument 2025
Ex situ collectionsEx situ collections
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Ex situ collections
The translocation program is supported by an active ex situ conservation program which centres around a potted living collection and seed bank maintained at the Australian PlantBank at ABGMA. The bulk of the living collection consists of plants produced by vegetative propagation using material collected from wild individuals and currently captures 60% of the known genets in the extant wild population that are currently large enough to collect propagation material from (Mackenzie et al. 2021; Mackenzie et al. unpubl. data). Many of the wild individuals yet to be incorporated into the collection have only recently been discovered and/or accessed by field teams and are in a vulnerable state of post-fire recovery (Mackenzie et al. 2021).
From 2020-21, all known extant individuals in the wild Wollemi Pine population were sampled for their DNA, with the exception of two newly discovered juveniles in Stand 2 (B. Mackenzie pers. comm.). Several recent collections of wild seeds have also been made, the largest of which was collected by helicopter in 2016 and consists of over 500 seeds from Stand 1 and over 100 seeds from Stand 4. These are held in the seed bank at the Australian PlantBank. Seed collection remains problematic due to the height of the cones on the trees and, therefore, most seeds have been collected by helicopter. Good seed crops are reported for many cultivated plants, but their genetic diversity is low due to the limited number of genotypes initially propagated for commercial release.
Work is underway to create a comprehensive in-ground, cooler climate backup of the ABGMA potted collection at BMBGMT, and a smaller living collection is maintained at BGOS. To provide maximum climate change resilience, a genetically diverse metacollection (Griffith et al. 2020) of Wollemi Pine is being developed by the RBGDT, BGCI, Forestry England, and various national and international partner agencies. To date, genetically diverse samples of plants have been distributed under agreement to botanic gardens and arboreta in Australia, Europe, the UK and the USA.
A greenhouse full of juvenile wollemi pine trees in pots.