However, on 19 September 2009, the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens issued a media release regarding the propagation efforts saying: "The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens is working towards securing the future of a rare and ancient Tasmanian native plant... "Lomatia tasmanica", commonly known as King's Lomatia, is critically endangered with less than 500 plants growing in the wild in a tiny pocket of Tasmania's isolated south west. The RTBG has been propagating the plant from cuttings since 1994... 'Fossil leaves of the plant found in the south west were dated at 43,600 years old and given that the species is a clone, it is possibly the oldest living plant in the world".