Wollan

Wollan lives in a canyon whose location is a state secret. Found in 1994 by a ranger who abseiled into a hidden Australian gorge, the Wollemi pine had been "extinct" for two million years — and the rangers who found him decided the world did not get his address. Helicopters are turned away. Coordinates are sealed. He likes it that way. "Fame is a kind of clear-cutting," he tells the rare visitor the rangers allow through. His bark bubbles like chocolate, his crown survived everything the eons threw at it, and his whole philosophy fits in one sentence: the best way to outlive a catastrophe is to be somewhere it never thought to look. Asked about the Missing Ring, he only smiles. "A year with no ring? Sounds like my canyon. Not absent. Just unmapped." The Ancient Ones envy his obscurity and visit him the way pilgrims visit hermits.