In the ancient rainforests of Queensland, Australia, a botanical time capsule survives – a tree so primitive and peculiar that it earned the nickname "The Green Dinosaur."

But don't let its gentle name fool you; this living fossil harbors a secret.

Nature's Rule-Breaker

While most flowering plants follow nature's strict blueprint of producing seeds with one or two leaves, the Ribbonwood tree (Idiospermum australiense) brazenly breaks the rules. Like a botanical rebel, it produces seeds with up to six leaves, and as if that weren't enough, it sends up multiple shoots from a single seed – a characteristic that makes botanists scratch their heads in wonder.

Its massive fruits, as large as tennis balls, split into quarters when they hit the ground, while its crimson flowers, arranged in mesmerizing spirals, whisper tales of Earth's ancient past.

Lost and Found: A Tale of Survival

The Green Dinosaur's story reads like a thriller. Discovered in the 1800s by timber cutters near Cairns, it caught the attention of German botanist Diels. But when he returned to study it further, he found only sugarcane fields where these magnificent trees once stood. The species was declared extinct – another victim of human progress.

But nature had other plans. In 1971, the tree made a dramatic comeback – not through careful botanical surveys, but through a series of mysterious animal deaths. The toxic fruits of this "extinct" species were turning up in the stomachs of dead livestock, leading to its rediscovery.

The Dispersal Mystery

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Green Dinosaur is the unsolved mystery of its seed dispersal. Its fruits are like botanical puzzles: too heavy to float, too poisonous to eat, and too large for most modern animals to transport. Today, these seeds simply fall and roll, limiting the tree's range to small pockets of wet lowland rainforest.

Final Thoughts

The mystery deepens when we consider that this tree evolved during the Age of Angiosperms, some 120 million years ago. Could its unusual characteristics be adapted to extinct megafauna? Perhaps massive prehistoric creatures once feasted on these fruits, spreading the seeds across ancient Australia. Now, like a species out of time, the Green Dinosaur persists only where gravity and chance allow, a living reminder of Earth's distant past.

Idiospermum australiense (Ribbonwood Tree) | Must see May

Video by Botanic Gardens of Sydney