Hi Windy,
Araucaria can be propagated via tissue culture. Wollemia Nobiliis, the Wollemi Pine was an ancient tree found in a deep gorge in the Blue Mountains by Park Ranger David Noble. The tree survived millions years and specifically the last 50,000 years of destructive human burning here in Australia. It is believed, that due to an extreme lack of genetic diversity in the remaining plants, destructive human fire stick farming/mosaic burning and natural fires reduced this population to maybe one or two individual trees. Due to the valuable nature of this tree to tree enthusiasts and collectors, the material was propagated extensively via tissue culture and the resulting trees sold all over the world to satisfy demand.
Of the family Araucariaceae(in the order Pinales) you have 3 remaining genuses(Araucaria, Agathis, Wollemia).
-In the genus Araucaria there is the Bunya Pine, Hoop Pine, Parana Pine, Monkey Puzzle Tree, Klinki Pine from PNG, Norfolk Island Pine, and 15 highly threatened species from New Caledonia.
-In the genus Agathis, which are commonly known as Kauri Pine, Australia has 3(Atropurpurea, Microstachya and Robusta), Australis in NZ, and there are many others(22 species in total)in the Southern Hemisphere.
-In the genus Wollemia, there is one. Wollemia Nobilis, the Wollemi Pine, a living fossil that survived the constant burning created by destructive humans.
Agriculture is around 12,500 years old.
Homo Sapiens is around 200,000 years old.
Primates are around 50 million years old.
These trees are 240 million years old, before bees, birds, eucalypts or flowers....before the emergence of almost anything we know or recognise in our current short lives.
These trees oxygenated the earth from 0.16% oxygen in the air to levels that would allow our emergence and eventual destruction of these same trees(and ourselves).
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/australian-rainforest-woods/9448170
I hope you find researching these trees interesting. They really are an ancient giant, and such a useful plant in the myriad benefits that they could provide us. Unfortunately, we are too short sighted to plant them en masse, eg in a strip farming agroforestry scenario. They collect fog and precipitation on their leaves due to their high leaf area and return that massive amount of water back to the soil, helping us in every possible way. They also limit evaporation in dry areas, of which Australia is one of the driest on the planet, and provide a massive nut crop every 3 years. When will we ever learn?? Only until it's too late I imagine.
