itself for at least 43,600 years and possibly as long as 135,000 years. This estimate is based on radiocarbon dating of fossilised leaf fragments that were found away from the extant colony. The fossilised fragments are identical to the contemporary plant in cell structure and shape, which suggests that the ancestral and modern plant are also genetically identical. This further implies that the ancestral plant was also triploid and therefore also clonal, due to the extreme rarity of naturally occurring sexually reproducing triploid organisms. Conservation Lomatia tasmanica has been declared critically endangered under the Australian government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It is also classified at a state level as "Endangered" under the Tasmanian government's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. The original plant group that King discovered in 1934 has disappeared (and likely died out), and the sole remaining group of approximately 500 plants covers a 1.2-kilometer-long area in the extreme southwest of Tasmania. This area is prone to fires and other natural threats to the plants, so Tasmania has begun an effort to develop other populations of L. tasmanica in controlled environments such as the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, which has been propagating the plant from cuttings since 1994. Because of its fragility and rarity, their specimens are not on display to the public. Due to its inability to reproduce sexually, there is no possibility of increasing the plant's genetic diversity to promote disease resistance through purely natural means. Infestation with the fungal pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi has been recorded in other plant species around away from some wild L. tasmanica populations. Bushfire could also spread this pathogen and potentially facilitate its infection of the remaining wild plants. Cultivation Lomatia tasmanica strikes readily from cuttings but is difficult to keep alive in cultivation, often perishing when dried out. The cuttings are taken in January and February and take up to 12 months to form roots. Like their wild counterparts, the cultivated plants are susceptible to Phytophthora cinnamomi. L. tasmanica has been grafted successfully onto L. tinctoria, and the Botanic Gardens sought to trial grafting it onto L. ferruginea. Phytochemical profile Lomatia tasmanica was subjected to natural products isolation methods by researchers at The University of Tasmania. Their study uncovered several unique compounds some of which are shared by other Lomatia. Long chain non-polar molecules Heptacosane and Nonacosane were found in relatively fair yield. Juglone, and Glucose Pentaacetate were