New Hope for the 1200 Year Old Pontfadog Oak

One of the saddest stories over the last fortnight must surely be the toppling of the 1,200 year old Pontfadog Oak which was to be found not far from Chirk in the County of Wrexham.  The tree was reputed to be one of the UK's oldest and largest oaks, and fell victim to strong winds.   It is likely that the saturated ground did not provide a sufficient anchor for the root system.

Good news has arrived however, as attempts are now being made to clone the tree. Some of its buds and twigs have been removed in an attempt to try to create a genetic match. They have been sent to organisations, including the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, which will attempt to extract its DNA. If the DNA process works, the cloned tree could return to its original plot.

The tree had everything that you would expect of such a venerable specimen, including a girth of 42ft 5in (12.9m) with a huge hollow trunk big enough to seat six people at a table. It has been said that it was a gathering point for Welsh princes such as Owain Gwynedd, who is said to have met his troops under it in the 12th Century before defeating English king Henry II in battle.

The Pontfadog Oak was 1,200 years old

But the sessile oak, which was still popular with walkers and visitors, was felled by gusts of up to 60mph overnight on 18 April after standing since 802.

Driving force behind this attempt is Wrexham council tree officer Moray Simpson, who decided to take samples from the tree in the hope it could be cloned. He said that its DNA was important not only because the tree was so significant culturally and historically, but also to preserve the "good genetics" of an ancient oak at a time when many trees were succumbing to disease.

Difficulties lie ahead, but if the process is successful, it would be like "a phoenix rising from the ashes". "Wouldn't it be fantastic if in another 1,200 years time, the tree will still be stood there?" he added.

Mr Simpson has sent the twigs and buds to Kew, along with the Windsor Great Park estate, the National Trust and a tree expert in Cambridgeshire. They will all put their heads together to try to graft the buds and twigs from the Pontfadog Oak onto the root stocks of other young oak trees. It is then hoped that there is a chance that the trees will then fuse together and the Pontfadog Oak section of the tree will grow. The Royal Botanical Gardens Kew could then take the new Pontfadog growth and try to get the exact genetic match of the tree - a process known as micro-propagation.

"If they do manage it, it would be the exact same genetics of the Pontfadog Oak," said Mr Simpson. "The tree will be lost but the genetics won't be. The first cloned tree would hopefully go back to where the original one grew and we could put others around the Wrexham area."

However, he warned that there was a long, uncertain road ahead. "It will be at least a year before we know if the tree has grafted and that's before the micro-propagation," he said. "I'm aware the whole process for oaks is very difficult and it's very late in the season to do it, but I couldn't just stand by and see its genetics lost. It was the most iconic tree in Wales. It was one of the oldest trees in Europe, which means one of the oldest in the world."