tree

By Jonathan Amos

It’s been dubbed "the loneliest tree on the planet" because of its remote location, but the Sitka spruce might represent something quite profound about the age in which we live.

The tree, sited on Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean, records in its wood a clear radioactive trace from the A-bomb tests of the 1950s and 60s. As such, it could be the "golden spike" scientists are seeking to define the start of the Anthropocene Epoch - a new time segment in our geological history of Earth.

A newly discovered Hawaiian tree recently had the distinction of being added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Critically Endangered Species in the same scientific article in which it was named.

By Mark Kinver

One of these Alaska tree saplings is not like the others. Each one of its needle-covered branches resembles a feather, each feather comprised of green scales. Young yellow cedars like this one droop more than the common conifers, Sitka spruce and western hemlock. And on this Juneau trail, it's the only yellow cedar in sight.

Philippine officials said Saturday they had set a new world record for the most trees planted in an hour, w​ith 3.2 million seedlings sown as part of a national forestation programme.

Official certification from Guinness World Records will still take weeks but government officers expressed confidence they had broken the old record of 1.9 million trees planted in India on August 15, 2011.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP) and the Global Trees Campaign are working together to step up conservation for some of the world's most threatened tree species. BGCI is leading an ex situ survey of globally threatened tree species which will prioritise species for incorporation into MSBP collections.

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