You know the future has arrived when someone wants to clone a tree.
Lady Liberty is a 2,000-year-old bald cypress tree located in Big Tree Park in Longwood, Florida. It's been alive longer than anyone reading this article. Now, a nonprofit organization has collected a specimen of the 90-foot-tall tree so it can be cloned.
The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is working to create living genetic libraries by cloning some of the trees that are considered landmark trees through horticultural propagation. The idea is to save these trees before they die. Interestingly, Lady Liberty is located in the same park in Seminole County where another landmark tree once stood, called the Senator.
It is believed that the Senator was around 3,500 years old, but unfortunately it burned down in 2012. After the Senator's death, forest activists began to pay more attention to Lady Liberty's health. They believe that she will die within the next five years, so they want to clone her.
It has a diameter of 10 feet and a circumference of 32 feet. It is also one of the largest and oldest trees in the world today. So this may well be a worthwhile endeavor. The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive has collected a sample of the tree and its goal is to create living genetic libraries of cloned trees, hoping that the effort will aid in research and reforestation in the future. Let's hope it won't be necessary.
