Michigan News
Noted tree cloned in Detroit
AP
In 1973, Stella Barna planted a 2-foot sapling behind her home in Warren. It was a seedling of the Tree of Hippocrates, a large Oriental plane tree on the Greek island of Kos under which Hippocrates is said to have taught the beginnings of modern medicine about 2,400 years ago.
Now, Barna says, a genetic copy of the tree should be returned to its rightful owner: Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
Barna was the secretary to the medical school’s dean, Robert Coye, 35 years ago when the institution was offered a precious gift: a seedling of the Tree of Hippocrates from the International Hippocratic Foundation, which distributed trees to drum up publicity.
The school received the tree in 1973. But, Barna says, it wasn’t planted because of fears extensive construction on campus would harm the sapling.
After sitting in the dean’s office for several months, Barna says, ‘‘it was obvious something needed to be done with it, so they told me to take it home.’’
Now, she wants to return it to Wayne State. After all, she says, that’s where it was supposed to go in the first place, to inspire young doctors studying.
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