Source: Gazet Van Antwerpen 24-10-05

 

In Australia Sotheby's auction house has auctioned 47 cuttings from a pine from the time of the dinosaurs for a total amount of 630,000 Euro.
 

"A prominent, well-known gentleman" bought the six-year-old trees, Sotheby's revealed on Monday. The auction attracted worldwide interest from plant enthusiasts.
 

It was initially thought that the Wollemi pine had died out 150 million years ago. However, in 1994 a ranger in the Blue Mountains national park came across a type of tree that he was not familiar with. He showed his new discovery to a biologist. The latter noticed a close resemblance to the fossil of a pine in an Australian museum and so solved the mystery. The discovery of this tree was referred to as the botanical discovery of the century. The conifer can grow to a height of 40 metres.