A tree-ring boring taken 25 years ago indicated that the elm started growing in 1846, when James K. Polk was president.

Since then, it has managed to withstand the early invasion of Dutch elm disease in the 1930s and the later invasion of workers who built a small shed and a service road right next to it when constructing the Palisades Interstate Parkway in 1958. (The senior tree in Greenbrook Sanctuary is a chestnut oak that has lasted 275 years, Slowik said.)

Unlike acorns or chestnuts, the seeds of the elm are tiny and spread on the wind. Slowik harvested a clutch from Greenbrook's long-standing elm, took them home, refrigerated them to replicate winter dormancy, and tried to propagate them.

One took. "It's still at home, in a pot," she said.

She looks forward to the day she can take it back to the sanctuary and plant it, Slowik said.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.