Reading through the news yesterday I found this and thought it was pretty neat.

Scientists have launched a project aimed at solving the mystery of the giant redwood tree: What allows it to grow so tall and live so long?

What they are doing is sending arborists into the trees, 2-3 hundred feet to the lowest branches to use a? cross bow and cut off some new growth so they can clone these trees. Some of which are estimated to be between 2 and 3 thousand years old. The project will take genetic material from the trees to create a “living library” so researchers can study what allows these trees to become the tallest and largest living things on Earth, says David Milarch of the Champion Tree Project, which is working with Bartlett and the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund on the project.

They hope to plant these cloned trees near universities so scientists can study their genetics without having to climb up older trees. Scientists will also be cross pollinating some of the clones with newer growth trees from the redwood zone on the west coast to possibly create and even stronger and longer living version of these wondrous trees.

Leave a Reply