#agathis

Queensland Kauri in western park, Auckland. You can spot cones in the canopy if you look closely. Not sure of exact coordinates. -36.857000442841844, 174.7507930419915 Scan of half the trunk from later date, other side not accessible

Came across this video about striking cuttings with the absolute bare minimum of materials. The core idea is; if you keep the growing environment sterile + provide enough light/water for long enough, many plants that do not normally sprout from cuttings can do so eventually (ie. months to years) even without hormonal treatment.

So on a whim, I decided to try this (fairly unseriously).

Took some 10-15cm long (barely woody) trunk shoots from a streetside conifer - Agathis bornensis (ie. Dammar/Borneo Kauri).

Stick into plastic takeaway cup, filled with pure perlite. Wet until medium was soaked through but not visible water level.

Stick under shade (ie. bigger plants)

About 6 months later, all the cuttings have rooted (caveat being, n=2). In hindsight, a lot of this could be done better; I did not expect anything to happen and so I was not particularly meticulous about upkeeping the environment. Pure speculation, but this species is quite dry tolerant, also resin producing (ie. more leeway with drying out/infection even if not maintained well?).