sapling

There are 49 saplings in total, one for each foot of the old tree's height.

With increasing urgency, the couple scouted area ponds for suitable release sites, the trick being to find one currently unoccupied by other beavers, with abundant sapling growth as a food supply.

He also travelled to the small island of Paqueta, where he met locals, learnt about mangrove conservation and planted tree saplings.

One nursery owner last year threatened to burn millions of young saplings after nature restoration budgets for tree planting were plundered to fund local authority pay rises.

The roughly 400-year-old specimen of spreading and enveloping branches was just a sapling at chattel slavery’s 1619 arrival in North America.