Critically endangered

By Marcus Strom

An Australian conifer that traces its lineage to the Jurassic period 150 million years ago was long thought extinct. Only traces of its ancestor Agathis jurassica existed in the fossil record.

Then one day in 1994 David Noble, a park ranger on a bushwalking holiday, abseiled into a secluded Blue Mountains canyon to find the fossils alive and well and the Wollemi pine was reborn.

The distribution of the Critically Endangered tree Magnolia longipedunculata, is only restricted to the Nankunshan Nature Reserve in South China. The species is threatened with extinction because of its small number of individuals and the impediments to its reproduction (a combination of protogyny, a short period of stigma receptivity, and the lack of efficient pollinators). To reduce the risk of extinction, Dr.