That's fascinating Leo I saw lots growing happily in California too & I wondered about something like that. They were in terrible iron deficient hard lifeless looking ground, but were healthy. It's so interesting that a tree from one small canyon is so easily adapted to so many environments, but disappeared instead of repopulating other environments Steven Sent from my iPhone On 29/12/2011, at 12:07 PM, "Leo A. Martin" <leo@possi.org> wrote: > I don't have a Wollemia nobilis, but people here in metro Phoenix report > they do fine if well-watered and kept from the hottest afternoon summer > sun. Of note our soil and water are very alkaline and they don't seem to > mind. > > I have read Phytophthora is a denizen of acid soils and that Ferocactus, > large barrel cactus native from Arizona to California and far into Mexico, >