This year we grew our own Christmas tree.
Okay, it's pretty small and decorating it will be a challenge. But it's quintessentially Australian, and has a history much longer and richer than anything to do with Christmas. And it was grown from a seed from a cone from a tree growing in south Gippsland. So it's local.
Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae. Wollemia was known only through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges 150 km (93 mi) northwest of Sydney. The genus is named after the National Park.
In both botanical and popular literature the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine, although it is not a true pine nor a member of the pine family.
The Wollemi pine is classified as critically endangered and is legally protected in Australia.
From Wikipedia
Next year it will be bigger!
Next year, also, I'd like to include pieces on lots of different southern Gippsland gardens of useful plants. Words and/or pictures. I know there are so many around! So please, while you're relaxing during the next couple of weeks give some thought to the things about your own garden that surprise and delight you, and let Grow Lightly know about them. You know the email address: info@growlightly.com.au .
I'm so looking forward to hearing from you.
Keep happy and safe.
Meredith
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