Thursday, 7 July 2022

Does Cloning Actually Make the Tree's Replacement Any More Special?

In 2013, North Wales' 1200 year old Pontfadog oak was destroyed in a storm. The National Botanical Gardens of Wales have subsequently cloned the tree and 5 saplings will be returned to the Cieriog valley. A perfect solution? (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/06/pontfadog-oak-returns-five-cloned-saplings-north-wales-ceiriog-valley). This actually appears a bit contrieved. 1200 years is really old for an oak tree, so the plant was at or near its maximal age. It's unlikely that a clone will look very different from an oak grown from a random acorn. Simply putting in a replacement tree, might have yielded an effectively identical solution. Technology, in this case, really doesn't seem to add anything tangible.
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