SANFORD, Fla. (AP) - Officials in central Florida are hoping to clone a 2,000-year-old tree.
Samples were collected Monday from the 90-foot-tall cypress tree known as Lady Liberty in Big Tree Park in Seminole County.
Lady Liberty is considered the sister tree of the former 3,500-year-old cypress tree called the Senator, which burned down in 2012 from arson.
The Senator lived 40 feet from Lady Liberty in the park.
Seminole County is joining forces with Michigan-based Archangel Ancient Tree Archive in the effort to clone Lady Liberty.
The group hopes to reforest the planet by studying and planting cloned trees that have been around for hundreds of years.
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