London: The famous ‘Newton’s apple tree’ in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden has uprooted and fell down after being hit by the powerful winds of Storm Eunice, on Friday.
Garden curator Dr Samuel Brockington said that the tree, which was cloned from the one that led Sir Isaac Newton to discover the laws of gravity, was planted in 1954, and had stood at the Brookside entrance of the botanic garden for 68 years. The botanic garden informed that it had a clone of the tree that would be planted elsewhere in the garden soon.
2/8 The story of Newton’s famous discovery of universal gravitation, prompted by a falling apple in the garden of his childhood home @WoolsthorpeNT, is apparently well supported by numerous independent accounts from contemporaries of Newton. See: https://t.co/QIKb1RJz18
— Samuel Brockington (@brockingtonian) February 19, 2022
The original tree from which an apple fell, leading Newton to devise his theory of gravity, is at Woolsthorpe Manor in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Even though it was blown over in a gale in the 19th Century, the tree survived and over the years has been propagated by grafting, which involves binding one of the shoots on to another sapling.
5/8 Several accounts exist of the tree being clonal propagated by grafting, and grown in estates including @BeltonHouseNT but importantly a scion of this tree was grafted at the Fruit Research Station at East Malling – and from here most of the “Newton Apple Trees” come.
— Samuel Brockington (@brockingtonian) February 19, 2022
Dr Brockington pointed out analysis which showed that three trees in Cambridge – including the one at the botanic garden – were a clone of Newton’s original apple tree. He further said that even though it was a ‘sad loss’ that it had fallen in Friday’s storm, they were aware it was ‘on its way out’ due to honey fungus.
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