An outbreak of disease has led to an elm tree in a city centre park being cut down.
Dutch elm disease has been detected in an “exquisite” tree in Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Gardens.
The tree, a camperdown elm right next to Pavilion Café, has been infected and work to remove it took place on Tuesday, August 15.
"Losing this exquisite tree from our garden saddens us deeply,” said Rob Boyle, head gardener at Brighton and Hove Museums.
“The decision to remove a tree is never made lightly, but it is the only course of action to protect the other trees in the garden from this disease.”
- READ MORE: Trees inoculated against deadly disease
Brighton and Hove City Council protected more than 200 elms across the city in May, using an organic product called dutch trigg to inoculate the trees.
Its tree team will be assessing the effectiveness of this program later this year.
Infected trees which are close to mature elms can spread the disease more quickly through interconnected roots.
Inoculation does not protect the roots, so the council has severed the infected trees root connections in the removal process.
The remaining elms in the gardens will be under "close observation" after the tree is fully removed to make sure the disease does not spread further.
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