The Wollemi Pine
As my wife and I have planned our garden over the past twenty years, we have developed a number of “rooms” or vistas, which greet the eye as you walk about the garden. Because we spend only what we have, there is much more to be done, but setting up a garden is a task that takes decades and the pleasure is in doing it, not just enjoying it when all is finished. One of my favourites is the view as you walk down the Santa Scala.
At one part of our garden, the ground level drops down a couple of metres. Built into this drop in ground level is the Greenhouse with all of its plants and pots on shelves, under the shelter of vines and towering palms. An automatic misting system with water pumped from our dam waters them all. Running down the side of this Greenhouse is a series of wide steps. Each step is about a metre square and is paved with quarry tiles. The low-rise steps reminded me as we built them, of my progress up the Santa Scala in Rome on my knees in an act of private prayer and devotion.
It was at a time I was making a series of films on the life of Christ in Israel but included this site, as these steps were supposed to be been brought from Jerusalem to Rome. Opposite the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Holy Stairs are reputed to be those walked up by Christ. The 28 marble stairs carefully preserved in this handsome building are traditionally the steps walked up by Christ on his way to trial before Pontius Pilate. They led up to a judgement area before the bema, or judgement seat, of Pilate, referred to in Scripture by the Aramaic name of Gabbatha (John 19:13). Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, was a pioneering collector of relics, and the staircase was supposedly among her finds, brought to Rome in c.326 AD.
Devout pilgrims still mount the steps on their knees, praying. The rate of progress is very slow and is suitably punishing. Nowadays the stairs are protected by wood, although there are holes cut through above marks which are supposed to be Jesus’ blood. You will not be able to see through these unless you are kneeling. There are no special spiritual blessings just because a person ascends them. But you can use them as a focus for your meditations. Think of Jesus ascending the steps to the place of Judgement.
“So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” – John 19: 1-16.
For many centuries, pilgrims have climbed these stairs on their knees. These stairs gained infamy when Martin Luther climbed them 500 years ago, praying for the souls of his grandparents. When he reached the top, he famously wondered if it all meant nothing. His trip to Rome was clouded by doubts – about the church, about his faith, about indulgences, and more. For him, the religious experience of the Scala Sancta was not buying a soul out of purgatory – something that could not be done – but about reawakening his own Biblical faith. This was a turning point in what became known as the Reformation, which led to the development of all the Protestant churches.
For me I often think of Christ’s passion for my sins whenever I climb or descend these stairs in my garden. Under the palm trees I think of Christ and His passion.
As we descend these garden steps, ahead lays a very tall pergola with a curved roof covered by climbing roses. I made this pergola about ten years ago. The whole area is surrounded by dozens of roses in the rose garden. This is divided into two halves with a path between going under the pergola and up to a wide seat, where you can stop and rest and meditate on the Santa Scala and its deeper meaning. Behind the seat is the focal point to which the eye is drawn. On the top of a sandstone column is a tall, wide urn, and in the urn a most unusual green tree. It is a sign of God’s eternal care for us all. It is one of the oldest species of tree on earth. My family gave the tree to me as a Father’s Day present years ago.
The Wollemi™ Pine is one of the world’s oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. With less than 100 adult trees known to exist in the wild, the Wollemi™ Pine is now the focus of extensive research to safeguard its survival. We can all assist in the conservation effort by purchasing and growing our own Wollemi™ Pines and becoming part of one of the most dramatic comebacks in natural history.
As Dr. Cathy Offord, of the Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney, says, “Having a Wollemi Pine in the garden allows everyone to help conserve this unique endangered species.” The Wollemi Pine was discovered in 1994 by a staff bushwalker in a national park only 200km from Sydney. The majestic conifer has attractive, unusual dark green foliage and bubbly bark. All new growth is a brilliant light green. The Wollemi Pine can grow up to 40 metres high in the wild with a trunk diameter of over one metre, but its growth is very slow and the sandstone urn will do it for some years yet. The Pines can survive temperatures from 5 to 45°C and are expected to withstand even cooler temperatures. They are also responding well to low light indoor environments. The Wollemi Pine, the ultimate survivor, is proving to be hardy and versatile in cultivation. At the time of its discovery, this living fossil, which dates back 150 million years, resulted in Professor Carrick Chambers, Director of the Gardens, saying: “The discovery is the equivalent of finding a small dinosaur still alive on earth.”
The Wollemi Pine was discovered when David Noble, a project officer with Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service, was on a weekend bush walk in August 1994. He abseiled into the 1,800ft gorge. Amid the dense vegetation was a group of 42 trees, the like of which he had never seen. More than 120ft tall with a ten-foot girth, they had cones on the top and a bubbly bark. Their exact location was kept secret to protect them. Mr. Noble compared the trunks’ knobbly surfaces to a children’s breakfast cereal. “It’s as if you had a tree trunk and just sprayed it with Coco Pops,” he said. At first he thought the trees might have been introduced by seed dropped by birds. But after extensive research and examination by experts, the Wollemi Pine was formally declared a new genus (the scientific classification used to embrace a group of similar species). The only trees anything like them were found in fossils deposited in prehistoric times.
Dr Barbara Briggs, Scientific Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, said: “It really is a living fossil. It’s not only a new species but a new genus, and the last of a group that goes back well into the Jurassic times. It links the history of our flora to the time before Australia was a continent of its own.” Dr Briggs hailed it as one of Australia’s most outstanding scientific discoveries of the century, comparable to the living fossil finds of the dawn redwood tree in China in 1944, and the coelacanth fish in 1938 off Madagascar.
Wollemi Australia Pty Ltd is a subsidiary company of Forestry Plantations Queensland, the principal commercial plantation forest grower in Queensland. The Botanic Gardens Trust (Sydney) has licensed Wollemi Australia Pty Ltd to propagate and market the Wollemi Pine in Australia and internationally. A key conservation strategy of the Wollemi Pine Recovery Plan is to protect the wild population of these unique plants to ensure Wollemi Pines are growing in gardens, homes, and parks around the world.
Jaime Plaza van Roon is the Senior Photographer at the Botanic Gardens Trust and has been responsible for photographing the Wollemi Pine in situ for the past 14 years. He photographed the Wollemi Pine in 1994 before it was even officially identified and has since visited the wild population twice a year to document the trees for scientific purposes. To meet researcher requirements, Jaime takes detailed photographs of the Wollemi Pines’ physical characteristics like leaves, branches, cones and bark. A major part of his work is photographing the trees’ cone development over time so researchers can build up a picture of the reproductive cycle and are able to determine the number and position of male and female cones produced on each tree from year to year.
Jaime’s work is no mean feat considering the remote location of the Wollemi Pine in the wild. To get to the site initially, Jaime was required to fly in by helicopter and, with no landing pad nearby, was winched down onto a nearby cliff. Ropes were then used to climb down with all the necessary photographic equipment from the top of the canyon to a suitable ledge. “In those early visits, I was required to not only photograph the Wollemi Pine site but also help with the process of seed collection by setting up seed traps. Very few of us are allowed into the wild population and the trips are so limited that it’s all hands on deck when we get there,” said Jaime.
“There is also only limited time in the day suitable to take photographs, because the trees are in a narrow shaded canyon. The ideal situation is absolutely still, with no wind, and just slightly overcast, but that doesn’t always happen.” “Although there’s a lot of waiting for that precise moment, I really enjoy the work and feel it is such a privilege to witness the pristine and untouched environment in which the wild Wollemi Pines live. There are very few signs of human disturbance at the site. I have not even seen flies there.” Over the years, Jaime has developed an extensive photo library of the Wollemi Pine, and many of his photos are available at the Wollemi Pine photo gallery. http://www.wollemipine.com/index.php
Walking down the Santa Scala, through the Rose Garden Pergola, and sitting in front of the Wollemi Pine, is one of my favourite places for private prayer and meditation. Here it is true: “You are closest to God in the garden, than anywhere else on earth.”
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
