QUEENSLAND TREE

Evening Star, Issue 22327, 1 May 1936, Page 5

QUEENSLAND TREE

ILDEBT LIVING THING ON EARTH Queensland claims to have the oldest living thing on earth. It is a macrozamia, a tree about 20ft in height, and estimated to be more than 12,000 year* old. In the Tamborine Mountain reserve there is a whole grove of macrozamia, the youngest of them being 3ft in height and 3,000 years old. When Professor Chamberlain, of Chicago Uniwas to collect data concerning macrozamias in various parts of the world, he travelled all over the globe, and the largest specimen he had seen prior to coming to Queensland was between six and seven feet in height, and was found in South Africa. He was amazed, therefore, when he found in the Tamborine Mountain reserve a whole' grove of macrozamia, which measured over 20ft in height, and whose ages’ he estimated to be between 12,000 and 15,000 years. The largest macrozamia which Professor Chamberlain had ever seen, and weighing 851 b, as against the South African record of 351 b, contained 151 seeds, and these were sent to America. One seed was_ planted in each of America’s 161 national parks. Now each of the seeds has germinated, 50 that a descendant of Queensland’s macrozamia is now growing in each of the national parks of America.