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Local farmers of Shanghai rescued an ancient ginkgo tree from verge of death with a traditional remedy, even after professional gardeners had failed for years to solve the problem.

Experts from the Shanghai Ancient and Rare Trees Administration Office announced Tuesday after a visit to the tree that it has fully recovered and rejuvenated.

Ranked as the third oldest tree in town, the 1,000-plus-year old tree in Pudong began dying in the early 1990s when people came around to explore the one-time farming land. Its leaves turned yellow and kept shedding after workers tried to move it out of the way and hurt it.

"We then made our best effort such as fertilizing, trimming and bracing to save it but it didn't work," said Zhang Yongxin who was an engineer with the local gardening institute and led the rescue years ago.

As the tree used to be enshrined as a symbol of longevity by local residents, local farmers were worried even more than the gardening experts. Having been farmers for generations, they applied a rustic method which was popular among farmers to conserve soil fertility - growing green soy beans around the tree.

Year in and year out, the ginkgo tree recovered bit by bit as locals volunteered to grow soy beans till it finally pulled through.

"It is a magic tree and we all believed it would not die," said an elderly woman surnamed Chen who was among those volunteers.

After study, experts discovered the "magic" of soy beans. "We found that leguminous plants such as soy beans have the ability to absorb nutrition and consolidate the soil fertility that the dying ginkgo tree demanded," said Zhang. "Leguminous plants are not a panacea. They just work in this case."

Experts are now studying the phenomena in hopes they can save more old trees in the future.

(eastday.com August 4, 2004)