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New York City to clone "historical" trees

Posted Jan 12, 2008 at 12:55PM by Isaac C. Listed in: Environmental Campaigns, Biology Tags: Manhattan, New York, Oregon, DNA
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NYC Cloning Historical Trees for Future - Image 1 NYC Cloning Historical Trees for Future - Image 2 

 
Cloning has been the subject of many a controversial sci-fi movie, but it's not likely we'll be hearing of mutant takeovers in this story: New York City is cloning 25 of its "historical" trees as part of its "Million Trees NYC" project.

The trees that will be cloned will come from each of New York's five boroughs, including trees from Central Park that were planted by Frederick Law Olmsted, the architect of the park. All in all, the 25 trees that will be chosen will include nine different species.

The trees that will be chosen are either at least a century old or have a special significance to the local community of the tree. One of the trees chosen is one of the city's oldest trees, the St. Nicholas Elm in upper Manhattan.

Snippings from the trees will be sent to Oregon, where it will be "cloned." Cloning trees isn't the same as cloning mammals. The process involves grafting the cuttings from the original trees to roots of trees from the same species.

Later, the new growth will be peeled off, creating a sapling with the DNA of the original tree. This won't be in the same shape of the original tree of course. Each tree will have 10 clones and will be replanted back in New York after growing 2 to 3 feet.

It is believed that the cloned trees will do better than most others. As Adrian Benape, Parks Commissioner for NYC explains:

[They have] withstood the test of time and the indignities of urban life. These trees as a result tend to be hardier species, inherently disease resistant. They are a great reaffirmation of the importance of nature in New York City - trees so good that people are looking to clone them.

[Via Associated Press] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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