The cryptic (or mysterious) thing is why is the tree out of place? (For the Aussie pines, why are they out of time?) In neither case is the answer likely to be be really weird (tree-loving aliens in flying saucers, anyone?!), but it's just a puzzle.
Another puzzle is why don't they simply date the tree via tree rings? This can be done by drilling a narrow core from the tree, which doesn't harm it. It would be interesting too to see if that would reveal a 'flip-over' when the tree changed from southern to northern hemisphere seasons! (Probably not, as the tree was presumably transported as a very small sapling.)