The Sycamore Gap tree has sprung new life just months after it was felled in an act of “deliberate vandalism”.
Authorities determined that the tree – which once sat in Northumberland framed by two sections of Hadrian’s Wall – was deliberately sawn in September 2023.
Now, less than half a year after the incident shocked the country, the first seedlings salvaged from the site of the felling have started sprouting.
National Trust officials were able to recover debris – seeds and twigs – from the scene of the suspected crime last year.
The organisation’s cultivation team has nursed 45 seedings, one of its directors has said, at a top-secret location in Devon.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Andy Jasper, the trust’s director of gardens and parklands, said the tree’s material is now at a lab known for producing genetic copies of well-known British plants.
The Sycamore Gap shoots now reside alongside such lauded company as the apple tree Sir Isaac Newton said inspired his theories of gravity.
They remain at the undisclosed location in case some blight should strike their living relatives, decimating the population.
But, unlike the apple tree and its other valuable examples of famous British flora, one of those seedlings may return to its predecessor’s place on Hadrians’ Wall.
Conservationists plan to graft one of the saplings to the felled tree’s base if a new one fails to sprout there naturally.
Mr Jasper told the BBC the process of grafting trees is centuries old and can be traced back to ancient Egypt.
He said: “It’s a bit Frankenstein-esque – adding body parts onto something else, making a hybrid. But it’s worked for hundreds of years.”
As the National Trust prepares to nurture the new sycamore, police are still working to determine who felled the original.
In their latest update on December 13, 2023, Northumbria Police investigators said they were seeking new information regarding the incident and were “committed to establishing the full circumstances surrounding the damage and in bringing any offenders to justice”.
The service added: “Sycamore gap is an iconic part of our region’s landscape and we know just how much outrage this incident has caused.”
