It took three months of planning, a crane, and nine gardeners to transfer a palm tree called a cycad to a new pot. The operation at Kew Gardens in London was difficult and delicate because the tree is considered to be the oldest potted plant in the world.

The ancient cycad was collected in the early 1770s from the Eastern Cape in South Africa by Kew's first plant hunter, Frances Masson.

It was one of 500 species gathered for the botanical gardens during Captain Cook's second voyage around the globe.

For the last 160 years, the tree has been housed in Kew's Palm House, where its nobbly trunk has grown outwards and upwards at an inch a year.

It now stretches to 14ft 5 inches and because it is growing at an angle, is propped up by stilts.

The repotting procedure was successful. Link -via Unique Daily

(imafe credit: Jenny Goodall)