Australian Nightcap Range's rainforest (far north of New South Wales) is the host of a newly discovered specie of a giant tree, that revealed to be a living fossil.
Robert Kooyman, the discoverer, a local botanist, solved by the way a 30 years long mystery about that tree. He also requested an emergency protection for the stand under the NSW threatened species legislation. There are only 23 adult trees left, so this is important to protect them. Adults can be identified by their girths of more than 10 centimetres. All of the surviving trees were found in a single densely populated area, kept secret for protection.
Happily, NSW Environment Minister Bob Debus said the government would support the listing and welcomed the discovery of a new member of the plant family that includes the waratah, the state's floral emblem.
The Nightcap oak has not yet been given a scientific name. However, some researches from Mr Kooyman and Dr Peter Weston, an expert in Australian flowering plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens, determined that the tree is a member of the Proteaceae family.
The first ever description of the Nightcap tree came
in 1875, when the botanist Baron Ferdinand von Mueller described a fossilised nut, about the size of a cricket ball, to be between 15 million and 20 million years old. Actual Nightcap Oak nuts are smaller, but shows the same structure. But the first hint of the survivance of this tree came when botanist Jeff Tracey collected some unidentifiable leaves. Mr Kooyman found his firsts leaves in 1988, but he didn't discover the tree before august 2000.
This giant tree (up to 40 metres tall) is the proof that even big things can be unknown for years.
Cryptozoologix 2001
