LORD Devon of Powderham Castle celebrated his 65th birthday by planting a rare and ancient Wollemi pine last week. He decided to invest in the tree before his birthday this Saturday as an early present to himself. Now the Woodland Garden at Powderham Castle is home to one of the first Wollemi pine trees on public display in Devon. The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) hit the headlines in 1994 when it was discovered 200km west of Sydney in a rainforest gorge within the 500,000-hectare Wollemi National Park by David Noble – a national park officer and avid bushwalker. It was previously only known as a fossil, widespread throughout Australia. Lord Devon said: 'The Wollemi pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest trees and a relative of the monkey puzzle. 'It belongs to the 200 million year old Araucariaceae family and would have been around with the dinosaurs. There are less than 100 mature trees left in the wild, so I thought it would be a good idea to plant one in the woodland garden at Powderham in order to help support the population.' The conifer's foliage is apple green, changing to blue-green as the tree grows. When the plant matures the foliage is more Jurassic-like, featuring two rows of leaves on the branches not unlike spines on a stegosaur's back. The largest wild Wollemi pine in the rainforest gorge is 40m tall with a main trunk of 1.2m wide. Powderham's Wollemi is currently 46cm tall. Lord Devon added: 'Royalties from sales of the Wollemi pine go to support conservation of the Wollemi pine and other rare and endangered plant species.'