Isaac Newton's Apple Tree Grows at Tufts Thanks to an eminent Tufts cosmologist and his colleagues, Tufts University has received cuttings from an apple tree at MIT that traces its lineage to the English farm where Sir Isaac Newton lived in the 1600s. While it will be years before the cuttings, now being nurtured at a Massachusetts orchard, bear fruit, the apples that grow at Tufts could descend from the one that famously dropped on Newton and led to his theory on the universal law of gravitation.
The oldest and largest trees within California's world famous Yosemite National Park are disappearing. Climate change appears to be a major cause of the loss. The revelation comes from an analysis of data collected over 60 years by forest ecologists.
The imposing 100-foot American chestnut tree that once dominated forests in the eastern U.S. may soon return, fortified by a new resistance to an Asian fungus. That blight essentially wiped out the tree during the past century, altering entire forest ecosystems. Scientists are releasing a sixth-generation hybrid this year for planting in several locations, confident that it will show the resistance of its hardy Chinese cousin.
A big buckeye falls What's believed to be one of the oldest and largest Buckeye trees in Ohio was a victim of Hurricane Ike. The 88-foot yellow buckeye, bearing a plaque "State Champion Buckeye," was destroyed by Sunday's high winds, North Bend Mayor Terry Simpson said. Only part of the trunk and one limb remain on the tree, located off Shady Lane at the entrance to Aston Oaks golf course.
Archaeologists scouring a Scottish loch believe that they have discovered the remnants of wood which was gnawed by beavers up to 8000 years ago. The ancient timbers found in the roots of a "drowned forest" by the shore of Loch Tay, Perthshire, add to the evidence that beavers lived in Scotland thousands of years ago.
A 4500-year-old cypress tree in Iran's southeastern province of Yazd is to be soon protected as one of the world's biggest living organisms, PressTV reported. Department of Environment of Yazd Province hopes to have this colossal tree protected from being damaged or destroyed. Read more
The largest tree by circumference in the world, is called Árbol del Tule. The Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), found in Mexico, has a circumference of 35.87 m and a diameter of 11.42 m at 1.5 m above ground level.
Botanists have discovered a new species of giant self-destructing palm in Madagascar which is so large that it can be seen in satellite photos. The plant, which only exists in the remote north-west of the island, is unlike anything else ever found on the island before. Although villagers had known about it for many years none had seen it flower. When this finally happened last year, botanists found that the tree spent so much energy flowering that it died.
The Anne Frank Tree was a white horse-chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) which was prominently featured in Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl.
However, the Amsterdam city government and the Anne Frank Foundation, owner of the popular tourist attraction the Anne Frank House, want to cut down the 160-year old chestnut tree, saying it is seriously ill and poses a danger to the public and property. According to tree experts, the tree can survive another five to 15 years. Plans to fell the tree in December sparked nationwide anger, with many opponents saying the living testimony to the Jewish girl's story should not be destroyed so easily. A court decided later that the tree can stay pending further analysis. The eight tree experts -- four representing the local council and four chosen by the tree protection foundation -- agreed that the tree has been attacked by fungus, but it can be kept alive for at least five more years and possibly as many as 15. The cost of keeping the tree, including a steel support system, is estimated at some 10,000 euros a year. Meanwhile, the Anne Frank House announced on Thursday that it received a record number of visitors in 2007. More than one million people, mainly from the United States and Britain, visited the house on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis between June 1942 and August 1944. The family was transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where Anne died seven months after her arrest, a victim of typhus. All of her family died, except for her father, Otto, who returned to Amsterdam after the war and discovered her diary there. The diary, which was given to Anne Frank on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944. It was eventually translated from its original Dutch into many languages and became one of the world's most widely read books.
One of the most moving entries in her diary is dated February 23, 1944:
"I go to the attic almost every morning to get the stale air out of my lungs." From her favourite spot, Anne and Peter "looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn't speak."
The building in which Anne Frank and her family hid for two years is now a museum.
A rare palm, believed to be the only specimen in the UK outside Kew Gardens, has taken root in Wales. Aberglasney Gardens in the Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire, has welcomed a mature, 12-foot caranday wax palm, a South American species of the genus Copernicia named after the Polish astronomer Copernicus.
It has been planted in Aberglasneys award-winning Ninfarium garden. It grows in temperate conditions so will be ideal in the temperatures set in the Ninfarium. Its already about 20 years old and hasnt stopped growing yet. Its common name comes from the fact that wax was scraped away from the leaves to make candles - Graham Rankin, director of operations at Aberglasney.