In partnership with Phil Gruszka of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Morton compared the DNA of the London plane trees of Schenley Park in Oakland with nursery trees. They discovered that the nursery trees have little genetic diversity, due to recent cloning practices in the industry. In addition, they have discovered that cloning is done for many trees in the nursery industry. Cloning is reducing our urban biodiversity, allowing these trees to be more susceptible to insects and disease.
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