‘The last plant left’: can Rapa Nui’s extinct tree be resurrected?

Seeds from the last toromiro, unique to remote Easter Island, were taken away in the 1960s. Now, after a crucial discovery gave hope for its survival, it is making a return

In the Mataveri Otai nursery on the island of Rapa Nui, Estefany Paté cradles a bag of soil with a 10cm sprout like it is a baby. She caresses its leaves. “It’s been so emotional to have it here,” says Paté, who works for Chile’s National Forest Corporation (CONAF).

“It was here before us; it was here before the moai,” she says, referring to the megalithic statues that dot the island. “It has a sentimental value.”

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