New life from above

My Wollemi pine - Wollemia nobilis - has not long woken up from its winter sleep! They seem to grow a white waxy cap over the growing tip which comes off in spring when the new growth emerges. This is the beginning of the new whorl of branches plus the new leading shoot.

I've Blipped this before, as have several other Blippers, but just in case it's new to some, it was first discovered in 1994 growing in a gorge not far away from Sydney in Australia. It was previously known only from fossils.

Rather like the Dawn Redwood, discovered in China in 1943, this endangered conifer is being widely planted throughout the world. Mine was given to me by a friend at Glasgow Botanic Garden, grown from a cutting from their tree, and as it will make a large tree in time will be planted out at Dunollie Estate here in Oban, together with a Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. 

In 2020 a bush fire swept through NSW and a special fire-fighting team was set up to try to save them - which they did! You can see the amazing photographs here - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/15/dinosaur-trees-firefighters-save-endangered-wollemi-pines-from-nsw-bushfires