Cuttings of the nation’s rarest native tree have been brought to Wiltshire as part of an effort to save them from extinction.

Black poplars once covered swathes of Britain’s ancient flood plains, but now there are believed to be fewer than 7,000 of them left.

In an effort to bring the species back to his area, Swindon Borough councillor Jake Chandler propagated dozens of cuttings taken from a tree in Dorset and is now planting them in the St Andrews area of the town.