ABC News, Australia September 2014 by Jessica Kidd
Twenty years ago this month, the Wollemi Pine made headlines around the world when it was discovered in a remote canyon in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
PHOTO: National Parks and Wildlife manager David Crust uses GPS to record the position of each Wollemi
Pine. (ABC News: Jessica Kidd)
Dubbed "a living fossil", the distinctive pines captured the world's attention because it was thought they had been extinct for at least 60 million years.
The Wollemi Pines, which were discovered in 1994, are about 40 metres tall and are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.
Their trunks are more than a metre in diameter and they have distinctive bark which resembles bubbling chocolate.
But the last two decades have taken their toll on the prehistoric pine and its future is now under threat from a soil-borne pathogen called Phytophthora, which most likely walked in on the boots of uninvited visitors.
David Crust from the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been managing the original site and said the introduction of Phytophthora caused root rot in several of the pines.
"It has impacted on a number of plants and it has caused part of those plants to die back," he said.
"Obviously we're really concerned the Phytophthora could spread throughout the population and start to kill individual plants."
To ensure the species survives, an insurance population of young Wollemi Pines has been planted at another secret location in the Blue Mountains.