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Experts issue urgent plea in effort to save one of UK's rarest species: 'They're ready to be shared with those eager to help'

Conservationists encouraged members of the public to come and claim the saplings for £10 (about $12) each.

Conservationists encouraged members of the public to come and claim the saplings for £10 (about $12) each.

Photo Credit: iStock

A farm in Dorset, England, has taken steps to help preserve a dying breed of tree, the BBC reported.

Black poplars, native to England, are in decline. Only 7,000 of the trees remain in the country.

However, at Bere Marsh Farm, near Shillingstone, Dorset, 35 saplings were grown from cuttings from one of the two black poplars on the farm. Members of Trees for Wimborne tested one of the trees and determined it was indeed native.

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Conservationists encouraged members of the public to come and claim the saplings for £10 (about $12) each. The price was low — just enough to cover the cost of compost and potting — to make it easier for potential buyers to participate.

"The saplings we have now ... are a vital part of the project, and they're ready to be shared with those eager to help," said Jenny Ashdown, per the BBC. Ashdown is from the Countryside Regeneration Trust, which owns the farm.

Spreading the trees across the country could make an enormous difference in increasing the genetic diversity of the black poplar population at large.

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That's more important than ever now because of the way black poplars reproduce. The trees, which grow in male and female varieties, produce long catkins of flowers — red for males, greenish-yellow for females. It takes pollen from a male tree to allow the female tree to produce viable seeds.

CRT says that only about 600 of the remaining 7,000 trees are female. That significantly limits their ability to reproduce.

The 35 cuttings produced by Bere Marsh Farm are from the male tree. However, even increasing the number of male trees can help, both by increasing opportunities for the existing female trees to reproduce and by laying the groundwork for potential future plantings with cuttings from female trees.

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