From small acorns, Botanic Gardens looks to climate-proof its future
By Sophie Aubrey
Next to the fallen trunk of the Royal Botanic Gardens’ 150-year-old white oak now stand three saplings that have come all the way from the sunny climes of California, Mexico and Texas.
The three young oak trees, about three metres tall and just coming into leaf for spring, will look slightly different to the older trees on Oak Lawn: the loquat leaf oak has rougher leaves without the classic lobes, the water oak’s leaves are narrower and the valley oak’s are smaller with deeper lobes.