Forest giant lives again

A TREE that was once expected to be the world’s biggest has got a second life in Cornwall — 125 years after it was felled in the U.S.

The 3,500-year-old redwood towered 30 storeys high and was cut down in 1890 on the orders of Lord Astor, a wealthy American living in Britain. All that remains in California is a 35ft-wide stump. Remarkably, the stump still produces shoots and scientists have used these to cultivate cuttings which are clones of the original tree. The saplings are now growing at the Eden Project in Cornwall, as part of an effort to conserve the endangered trees.