h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Alun, it's me, from g+...

I'm so glad you took my "hint" (almost ordering you about, I admit it!) to write for the Guide! This is a really nice piece, and it feels pretty much ready for Peer Review already!
The only things that stood out are one paragraph where I spotted a couple of repetitions of "Wollemia Pine" very close to each other, and they ended up beginning three consecutive rows - it might have been a teaching device, I certainly will recognise the name of this plant any time, now , and another place where it seems you wanted to say "bringing the trees to visitors instead" and not "being the trees to visitors instead", I suspect a little typo.
The rest is a lovely read (I love the coco pops bark!) and I get curious and want to see one of these plants!

As far as I can see, the only thing missing is an illustration. Have you taken a photo of one? Or perhaps you could ask permission to use one from one of the published scientific works? Sometimes that works, too, and the photographers usually don't mind a little publicity and credit

See you around!

Thanks for the comments. The repetition is just bad writing I'm afraid. The idea was to get something largely complete down and work out GuideML. I'm going to leave it for a couple of days and then return to it to see what else to change. For a start I'd like to add something more about the discovery of the plant.

I've got a couple of photos, but I don't know if they're suitable. You can see them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alun/tags/wollemipine/ Sadly none of them show the adult bark. The photo of Skippy the Bush shows the juvenile form of the tree.

Hi Alun!

Also glad to see you posting here :D

Trees with such an interesting background are perfect for the Guide. Where we try to differentiate from wiki is by wrapping information into an interesting article to read, as you have done, and so more on the history of the discovery would be very good to include.

Your photos are excellent, I'm particularly taken by the landscape one of the caged specimen. The youngster in a pot is good too. Do you own a specimen? If so, how much did it cost?

I do hope you enjoy our community and wish you well with the future of this entry.

Lanzababy

Guide Editor

I love the kangaroo warning sign - Kew sounds like it would be a very minor risk, but still And the landscape one would be a nice "feature" image, wouldn't it? The baby plant would be cute on the entry itself.

Skippy the bush is my mother's. I bought it as a birthday present when I was really out of ideas. I think it was around £55.

I don't know if it has a long term future. The plan was to put it in the garden, but they are prone to root rot in over-soggy soil. The garden has been absolutely water-logged since the summer. It may have to remain a pot plant.

I'm happy for either/both/neither photos to be used depending on what's best.

Thanks to both of you for your encouragement.

For £55, I'd be tempted to buy it a *really* big pot. Well, a bigger pot each time it needs it. And unless your garden is secure, I'd place a chain around the lower trunk and down through one of the pot's drainage holes and padlock the whole thing to something immovable.**

Then you can give it the exact conditions it needs. There's no point in drowning it.

**(professional gardener's advice)