Wollemia in the context of "Coniferous"

Conifers (/ˈkɒnɪfər/) are a group of seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. They are mainly evergreen trees with a regular branching pattern, reproducing with male and female cones, usually on the same tree. They are wind-pollinated and the seeds are usually dispersed by the wind. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta, also known as Coniferae. All extant conifers except for the Gnetophytes are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. There are over 600 living species.

Conifers first appear in the fossil record over 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous. They became dominant land plants in the Mesozoic, until flowering plants took over many ecosystems in the Cretaceous. Many conifers today are relict species, surviving in a small part of their former ranges. Such relicts include Wollemia, known only from a small area of Australia, and Metasequoia glyptostroboides, known from Cretaceous fossils and surviving in a small area of China.

Araucariaceae is a family of conifers with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family's native distribution is now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Malesia, it was formerly widespread in the Northern Hemisphere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Fossil wood, also known as fossilized tree, is wood that is preserved in the fossil record. Over time the wood will usually be the part of a plant that is best preserved (and most easily found). Fossil wood may or may not be petrified, in which case it is known as petrified wood or petrified tree. The study of fossil wood is sometimes called palaeoxylology, and a palaeoxylologist is somebody who studies fossil wood.

The fossil wood may be the only part of the plant that has been preserved, with the rest of the plant completely unknown: therefore such wood may get a special kind of botanical name. This will usually include "xylon" and a term indicating its presumed (not necessarily certain) affinity, such as Araucarioxylon (wood similar to that of extant Araucaria or some related genus like Agathis or Wollemia), Palmoxylon (wood similar to that of modern Arecaeae), or Castanoxylon (wood similar to that of modern chinkapin or chestnut tree).

Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside Wollemia and Araucaria (being more closely related to the former). Its leaves are much broader than most conifers. Kauri gum was historically commercially harvested from living New Zealand kauri and from swamp ground.