One of the world's rarest trees, once snacked on by dinosaurs, bears fruit in Britain for the first time after a retired couple planted a sapling bought by their friend on The Shopping Channel
Its spiky cones were a favourite snack for dinosaurs that roamed the Earth more than 200million years ago.
Experts thought it had gone the way of the diplodocus, but now the 'dinosaur' tree is very much alive — and bearing fruit in Britain for the first time — after a retired couple planted a rare sapling in their garden.
The Wollemi pine, one of the world's rarest trees, was believed to have become extinct two million years ago until it was rediscovered by a group of hikers in 1994, 125 miles west of Sydney, Australia.
Saplings and cuttings of the endangered tree were sold off around the world, catching the attention of Pamela and Alistair Thompson.
The couple paid £70 for an 18in sapling, bought initially on the Shopping Channel by a friend.
Now, after 15 years of care, the tree stands more than 13ft tall in their garden in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. Retired police officer Mrs Thompson, 75, was stunned to discover the rare tree bearing fruit for the first time ever this month.
She now hopes the evergreen can be propagated to produce seeds that can be used to grow more trees. She said: 'It would be amazing, absolutely amazing, to have seedlings and to propagate from the world's rarest tree. I couldn't imagine being so lucky to do it.
'I saw a small tree for sale for more than £1,000 which shows just how rare they are.'
Wollemi pines are related to monkey puzzle trees and bear both male and female fruit.
The grandmother added: 'The long pendulous fruits are actually the male cone and the globular spiky fruits are the female cones.
'So what we're really hoping later in the year would be to collect and germinate some of the seeds. That would be really something but we will just have to wait and see.'
To share the excitement, Mr Thompson, 75, a retired spinal surgeon, will open the couple's garden to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme on May 4.
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Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Daily Mail
One of the world's rarest trees, once snacked on by dinosaurs, bears fruit in Britain for the first time after a retired couple planted a sapling bought by their friend on The Shopping Channel
Its spiky cones were a favourite snack for dinosaurs that roamed the Earth more than 200million years ago. Experts thought it had gone the way of the diplodocus, but now the 'dinosaur' tree is very much alive — and bearing fruit in Britain for the first time — after a retired couple planted a rare sapling in their garden. The Wollemi pine, one of the world's rarest trees, was believed to have become extinct two million years ago until it was rediscovered by a group of hikers in 1994, 125 miles west of Sydney, Australia. Saplings and cuttings of the endangered tree were sold off around the world, catching the attention of Pamela and Alistair Thompson. The couple paid £70 for an 18in sapling, bought initially on the Shopping Channel by a friend. Now, after 15 years of care, the tree stands more than 13ft tall in their garden in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. Retired police officer Mrs Thompson, 75, was stunned to discover the rare tree bearing fruit for the first time ever this month. She now hopes the evergreen can be propagated to produce seeds that can be used to grow more trees. She said: 'It would be amazing, absolutely amazing, to have seedlings and to propagate from the world's rarest tree. I couldn't imagine being so lucky to do it. 'I saw a small tree for sale for more than £1,000 which shows just how rare they are.' Wollemi pines are related to monkey puzzle trees and bear both male and female fruit. The grandmother added: 'The long pendulous fruits are actually the male cone and the globular spiky fruits are the female cones. 'So what we're really hoping later in the year would be to collect and germinate some of the seeds. That would be really something but we will just have to wait and see.' To share the excitement, Mr Thompson, 75, a retired spinal surgeon, will open the couple's garden to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme on May 4.
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Telegraph
Tree from dinosaur age bears fruit for first time
One of the world's rarest trees is bearing fruit for the first time in a garden in Worcestershire. A retired couple in Wichenford, Malvern, are hoping their Wollemi pine can be propagated to help the endangered species. Dubbed 'dinosaur trees', the species dates back more than 90 million years and was thought to have died out with the T-Rex. But a cluster of the prehistoric conifers was discovered in 1994, in a remote valley 125 miles west of Sydney, Australia. In 2010, saplings and cuttings of the Wollemi pine were sold around the world, and one was replanted by Pamela and Alistair Thompson. They planted it in their garden in Wichenford and discovered it bearing fruit for the first time this month. Pamela, a 75-year-old retired police officer, said: 'It would be amazing, absolutely amazing, to have seedlings and to propagate from the world's rarest tree. 'I couldn't imagine being so lucky to do it. 'I saw a small tree for sale for more than £1,000, which shows just how rare they are.' Pamela and her husband Alistair, a 75-year-old retired spinal surgeon, are opening their garden to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme on May 4. The grandmother of three said: 'The long pendulous fruits are actually the male cones and the globular spiky fruits are the female cones. 'So, what we're really hoping later in the year would be to collect and germinate some of the seeds from it. 'That would be really something, but we will just have to wait and see.' The Wollemi pine, which flourished about 200 million years ago, is thought to be the first endangered tree to be protected through mass commercial cultivation. The tree is related to monkey puzzle trees and bears both male and female fruit. It became the most significant botanical discovery of the 20th century when a cluster was found by a parks ranger as he abseiled into a remote canyon in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, in 1994. After a decade of secret survival trials, it made its first European appearance in 2005, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Sir David Attenborough, who planted the tree, said at the time: 'How exciting that we should discover this rare survivor from such an ancient past. It is romantic that something has survived 200 million years unchanged.'
The Independent
24-04-2025
- The Independent
Lion bites on skeleton provide first evidence of gladiator's combat with wild beasts
A Roman gladiator's skeleton has provided the first piece of physical evidence of combat between a human and a large cat, archaeologists said. The skeleton, likely of a man who died between the ages of 26 and 35, shows bite marks on the pelvis from a big cat, which could have been a lion, archaeologists said in a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The remains were discovered in the Driffield Terrace cemetery outside the city of York, UK. It was one of over 80 skeletons excavated there in 2004. The burials at the site ranged from the early second century AD to the late fourth century AD, meaning the man was buried between 1,825 and 1,725 years ago. A forensic examination of the skeleton found 'unusual' deep holes and bite marks on the pelvis in what the study described as a 'hugely exciting find'. "We believe this to be the first example that a bite mark has been identified on such remains,' Prof Tim Thompson, the new study's lead author from Maynooth University in Ireland, said. He said archaeologists had only ever found a few confirmed gladiator remains across regions that once formed the Roman Empire. 'For years, our understanding of Roman gladiatorial combat and animal spectacles has relied heavily on historical texts and artistic depictions,' the professor of anthropology said. 'This discovery provides the first direct, physical evidence that such events took place in this period, reshaping our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region.' The researchers used 3D scanning to examine the wounds on the remains of the gladiator who had been decapitated. What intrigued them were the unusual circular marks along his hip bones. They scanned the marks and compared them to those left by zoo animals gnawing on bones. They found that marks from cheetahs, lions, tigers, and leopards closely matched those on the man's skeleton. They concluded that the injuries occurred at the time of death and were caused by the big cat dragging the man along the ground. "We could tell the bites happened at around the time of death,' Prof Thompson said. "So this wasn't an animal scavenging after the individual died. It was associated with his death." He said the pelvis was not a body part that a lion would usually attack, suggesting the gladiator had been fighting and was incapacitated before the lion bit him and dragged him from the hip. The skeleton was discovered in a grave with two other human remains and overlaid with bones of a horse. Previous analysis of the bones suggested it was that of a Bestiarius, a gladiator sent into spectacle combat with beasts. Malin Holst, lecturer in osteoarchaeology at the University of York, said she had never seen anything like this in her 30 years of analysing skeletons. 'The bite marks were likely made by a lion, which confirms that the skeletons buried at the cemetery were gladiators, rather than soldiers or slaves, as initially thought and represent the first osteological confirmation of human interaction with large carnivores in a combat or entertainment setting in the Roman world,' Ms Holst, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. Additional analysis of the remains showed the man had spinal and shoulder injuries from overloading his back. He also had signs of inflammation in his lungs and thighs and his bones showed that he had recovered from childhood malnutrition. 'This is a hugely exciting find because we can now start to build a better image of what these gladiators were like in life, and it also confirms the presence of large cats, and potentially other exotic animals, in arenas in cities such as York and how they too had to defend themselves from the threat of death,' Ms Holst said. 'We often have a mental image of these combats occurring at the grand surroundings of the Colosseum in Rome, but these latest findings show that these sporting events had a far reach, well beyond the centre of core Roman territories. An amphitheatre probably existed in Roman York, but this has not yet been discovered.'
