Cloned Trees

‘Newton’s Apple Tree’

Collapsed by Storm

February 22, 2022

Cambridge University Botanical Gardens, England, has lost its “Newton apple tree” due to Hurricane Eunice.

Botanical gardens curator, Dr Samuel Brockington, said the tree was planted in 1954 and had stood at the entrance to Brookside botanical gardens for 68 years. He said the tree was cloned from the tree that led Sir Isaac Newton to discover the law of gravity. The botanical garden said it still has a copy of the tree  which will soon be planted elsewhere.

The original apple tree, which led Newton to devise his theory of gravity, is at  Woolsthorpe Manor in Grantham, Lincolnshire . Although it was blown down by strong winds in the 19th century, the tree was preserved and  over the years has been propagated by grafting , in the form of tying one of its shoots to another young tree.

According to Dr Brockington, analysis shows three trees in Cambridge – including one in the botanical gardens – are clones of Newton’s original apple trees. He said although it was a “sad loss” when it collapsed in Friday’s storm, they realized the tree “didn’t have long to live” because it was already being eaten away by fungus. However, it has cloned the tree, “through the extraordinary science of grafting, so the ‘Newton Apple Tree’ will hopefully remain in our collection”, he said.