“I saw water pooling in that site before the trees were planted and was concerned,” Case said.Ĭase is the College Conservator of Botanical Collections and an associate professor in William & Mary’s Department of Biology. It’s been a rainy spring here in always-humid Williamsburg and the soil drains poorly. She explained that excess water in soils reduces soil aeration, inhibiting root growth and transport of water and minerals.Įxcess water also can start diseases directly in the soil by increasing microbial action, and a surplus of moisture in above-ground parts can hasten the spread of fire blight in flowers – the disease’s common entry point. She added that plants produce defensive compounds to help fight off disease, but marginal growing conditions can reduce a tree's energy resources to fight off disease and pests.Ĭase pointed out that her native Michigan can get a lot of rain, yet the sandy loam soil drains quickly and apple growers prosper. But she added that even in well-drained soil, constant rain can cause other issues such as fungal diseases on the leaves. It may have been unstoppable and the excess rain could not have helped.” “The bottom line is, I do not know how much rain played a role in the death of the Newton trees,” she said, “but fire blight is a bad disease of apples. Isaac Newton’s tree is a variety known as the Flower of Kent. The William & Mary Flowers of Kent were grown from cuttings from the Newton trees on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, which came from cuttings taken from the British Royal Botanical Gardens and so on, back to the ur-tree at Woolsthorpe Manor. The trees were prized as tangible connections to Newton, along with the first-edition copy of Sir Isaac’s masterwork Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica retained in the Special Collections Department of the university’s Swem Library.
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