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Baitball Blogger

(46,737 posts) Fri Aug 21, 2015, 11:58 AM Aug 2015

Arborists want to clone 2,000-year-old Lady Liberty at Big Tree Park

he was putting down roots when Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii in 79 A.D..

She has lived through the rise and fall of great civilizations — flourishing in the same spot just west of U.S. Highway 17-92 for 2,000 years.

She has survived droughts, diseases, fires and the threat of chain saws.

Lady Liberty is considered one of the oldest baldcypress trees in the world — standing strong in Seminole County's Big Tree Park just north of Longwood on General Hutchison Parkway.

Because of her stamina, a group of arborists from Copemish, Mich., proposes to clone the giant tree to create up to 100 genetic replicas for preservation and replanting across the country.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/seminole/os-big-tree-lady-liberty-clone-20150820-story.html

8 replies

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Highlight:

Arborists want to clone 2,000-year-old Lady Liberty at Big Tree Park (Original Post) Baitball Blogger Aug 2015 OP

first picture at the link, yo jesabus why did you make your people so fucking stupid? snooper2 Aug 2015 #1

Gasp and Splurt! Baitball Blogger Aug 2015 #3

I sometimes hate this country. nt awoke_in_2003 Aug 2015 #5

Clone a tree? Have these people never heard of taking a cutting? Vincardog Aug 2015 #2

Taking a cutting does not work for all species of plants. jeff47 Aug 2015 #4

exactly Vincardog Aug 2015 #6

Good idea, given we lost the Senator to Sara Barnes. DirkGently Aug 2015 #7

Considering the protective hyper-vigilance that these communities are capable of Baitball Blogger Aug 2015 #8

snooper2

(30,151 posts)

1. first picture at the link, yo jesabus why did you make your people so fucking stupid?

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 12:01 PM

Aug 2015

http://www.trbimg.com/img-55d6468a/turbine/orl-lady-liberty1-20150820/1300/1300x731

Baitball Blogger

(46,737 posts)

3. Gasp and Splurt!

Reply to snooper2 (Reply #1)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 12:48 PM

Aug 2015

I didn't see that. Here was I thinking that cloning was inspired by science, though, I just assumed it would involve something more complicated than a cutting.

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)

5. I sometimes hate this country. nt

Reply to snooper2 (Reply #1)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 01:53 PM

Aug 2015

Vincardog

(20,234 posts)

2. Clone a tree? Have these people never heard of taking a cutting?

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 12:09 PM

Aug 2015

jeff47

(26,549 posts)

4. Taking a cutting does not work for all species of plants.

Reply to Vincardog (Reply #2)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 12:58 PM

Aug 2015

No idea if that's true for this particular species of tree.

Also, cloning and taking a cutting are essentially the same thing - in both cases you end up with another plant that is genetically identical.

Vincardog

(20,234 posts)

6. exactly

Reply to jeff47 (Reply #4)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 03:00 PM

Aug 2015

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)

7. Good idea, given we lost the Senator to Sara Barnes.

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 03:06 PM

Aug 2015

It was about 3,500 years old. Got to see and photograph it shortly before she burned it down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree)

Barnes said she regularly went to the tree site to do drugs and lit a fire that night so that she could see, but that it got out of control. Officials said that they found images of the fire being started on Barnes' laptop and on her cellphone. When an arrest warrant was served at her home she was also charged with possession of methamphetamine.[2]

Baitball Blogger

(46,737 posts)

8. Considering the protective hyper-vigilance that these communities are capable of

Reply to DirkGently (Reply #7)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 04:29 PM

Aug 2015

reaching, I am really surprised that the park was left unattended. By her own admission, she had done this more than once.

But surely, what an idiot.

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