As the outdated adage goes, cash doesn’t develop on timber. However, what when you had a tree that was so uncommon that individuals would spend good cash for its seeds? Then you might actually say that you’ve a cash tree rising in your yard. Such is the case for a retired couple in England, Pamela and Alistair Thompson, each 75, who in 2010 paid £70 ($98) for a 46cm-tall Wollemi pine sapling that a pal purchased on the Shopping Channel. It’s believed that it was the primary ever endangered tree species to be protected by making it accessible to the general public.
What is the Wollemi pine?
The Wollemi pine is effective as a result of it seems within the fossil file way back to 200 million years in the past and was thought to have gone extinct about 70 to 90 million years again. However, in 1994, a bushwalker in Australia got here throughout a Wollemi pine in a secluded gorge. Biologically, it was a discovery as vital as coming throughout a dwelling dinosaur in a hidden half of Australia within the ‘90s.
Wollemi is an Australian Aboriginal word that means “watch out—look around you.”
A Wollemi pine in Seattle, Washington. via Brewbooks/Wikimedia Commons
The tree may have made its way to Eurpoe, but the wild trees are under threat from wildfires and climate change. It’s believed that solely about 90 exist within the wild as we speak. In 2006, it made its European debut when Sir David Attenborough planted one on the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. “How exciting we should discover this rare survivor from such an ancient past,” Attenborough said.
After 15 years of particular care, the Thompson’s tree started to bear fruit for the primary time in August 2025. “This year has been so unusually dry, it happened earlier,” she stated, in line with The Times. The couple now plans to bundle the dear seeds from the tree and provides the cash to the National Garden Scheme. The National Garden Scheme is a authorities program the place folks open their gardens as much as most of the people, and the cash that’s generated is donated to the Queen’s Nursing Institute.
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How a lot does a Wollemi pine price?
“I saw a small tree for sale for more than £1,000 ($1352), which shows how rare they are. We’re planning to package the seeds five or six at a time and sell the bundles online for £5 ($6.76). We’ve seen some retailers sell them for much more, but we want to make them accessible for people, as well as raise money for charity. We don’t yet know how many will be healthy and produce trees. Only time will tell.”
“We have around five large cones, which have produced about a hundred or so large seeds each. It would be lovely to see just how many seeds we can produce, but I have been very surprised by the numbers so far this year,” she said, according to Unilad. So, if you do the math, 100 seed packs at $6.76 each would go for $676. Not bad for just collecting seeds.
But they could make a lot more money off the seeds if they chose to do so. It’s believed that one seed can go for as much as £10 ($13.52). If they sold all 500 seeds produced by the five cones, they’d make $6,760.
This tree could net them thousands of dollars a year in perpetuity. “It really does prove that money can grow on trees,” Mr. Thompson said, in line with The Times.
A feminine Wollemi pine cone.by way of Adrian198cm/Wikimedia Commons
Preserving the Wollemi pine for the future
In 2023, over 170 young Wollemi pines grown by the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, in Australia, were shipped to be planted in 28 botanic gardens with climates that could support the pines, across the UK and Europe. One Wollemi was sent to Atlanta, Georgia, in the U.S.
“Discovering the lost Wollemi pines in the wild was a truly astounding moment for international tree conservation, and to be a leading partner nearly thirty years later in launching this important new metacollection on UK soil is an exciting moment for Forestry England,” Mike Seddon, Forestry England Chief Executive, said in a press launch. “As we care for the Wollemi pines we plant today, we’ll be able to study the way they grow, learning with the other botanic gardens how they flourish outside Australia. The climate crisis means that across all continents, many trees like Wollemi pines are facing urgent threats to their survival. We know that 34 per cent of conifers are now endangered, and our ongoing work to research, propagate, and save tree species is more vital than ever.”