The grounds of the University of Michigan’s North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) are home to an Archangel clone of the ancient tree where Greek physician Hippocrates (c.460-377 BC) and his students, the thought leaders of their time, learned from one another. The Hippocrates Tree planting ceremony was held at NCRC on Friday, October 24th, 2014.

Legend states that Hippocrates taught medicine under the branches of a sycamore tree. To honor that legacy, Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have partnered to provide a direct descendant from the original tree planted it Oct. 25 at NCRC.

From left to right: Ian Ashken, Director of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, David Milarch, Co-Founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., Medical School Dean and Lyle C. Roll Professor of Medicine, and Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., Founding Director of the Center for the History of Medicine and George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor

Ian Ashken, director of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, and his wife, Nancy Ashken, a U-M alumna, approached Medical School Dean James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., about Michigan becoming one of the first medical schools in the country to have a direct descendant — a clone — of the sycamore tree under which Hippocrates is said to have taught.

Read the entire article here or see more photos from the planting event on Facebook.