Newly Planted Urban Forests Can Easily Succumb to Disease

The London planetrees lining Schenley Plaza in Oakland are survivors, having braved diseases, pests, air pollution and other hardships since they were planted in the 1940s, and still live to leaf again.

That success is thanks in part to a rich genetic composition that gives them the resources to overcome a variety of environmental challenges, horticultural experts say.They are cultivars--plants produced in cultivation through selective breeding. Read Full Article