A rare plant whose ancestors lived when dinosaurs did has taken up residence in the University of Wisconsin-Madison botany greenhouses.
The Wollemi pine was presumed extinct until a “bushwalker” named David Noble discovered it in an Australian national park in 1994. As part of a worldwide effort to conserve and propagate the tree species – one of the oldest and rarest on earth – UW greenhouse director Mo Fayyaz recently purchased a foot-tall Wollemi pine seedling, one of a limited number that just became available in the United States through National Geographic.