sapling

It was brought from Grenada to south-west London as a sapling in the 1980s by one of the street's residents, Marline Anderson, who died in June.

Other residents and helpers have been showing up to give what they can, adding everything from aloe plants to coast live oak saplings to a 7-foot Aleppo pine someone had potted in a bucket.

But, he added that there were "signs of life" with shoots emerging from the stump, while seeds taken from the tree had been used to grow saplings which would be placed around the country.

The project, which will see 30,000 new saplings added to the site, is intended to "restore the wild side of the farm and the surrounding land," she added.

The study of ash trees at a woodland in Surrey revealed subtle shifts over time in different genes, which should help new saplings fight back against it.