On a cold, sunny day in December, Jean-Michel Poutissou paused to admire the six apple trees that he once fought to save.

Poutissou came to Vancouver in October 1972 when the trees on the campus of physics laboratory TRIUMF were mere saplings. The trees are scions of the same tree that Sir Isaac Newton is said to have sat under as he pondered gravity.

Poutissou, a researcher emeritus at TRIUMF, said the trees 鈥渨ere happily growing鈥� until the mid-1990s when condo developers wanted a straight road from the campus to the homes. The trees were in danger of being axed.

鈥淣obody (involved in the development) cared too much about Newton apple trees,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or them, they were in the way.鈥�

It took a campaign to convince the president of the University of British Columbia, where TRIUMF is located, to intervene and save the roundabout where the trees are planted, he said.

Now nearly 50 years old, the trees are covered in buds that will fatten over the winter before bursting into fruit.

Poutissou said he鈥檚 tasted the apples but that was a long time ago and he doesn鈥檛 remember their exact flavour.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not quite unlike a McIntosh but don鈥檛 hold me to that,鈥� he said with a laugh.

The trees鈥� journey began sometime in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Letters between the University of British Columbia and the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, England, show that on the day two grafts of the trees arrived in Vancouver on an Air Canada flight on Jan. 4, 1971, the ground was covered in more than 50 centimetres of snow.

The two cuttings were further grafted and now six trees sit on the TRIUMF campus.

Today, the National Trust in the U.K. is the custodian of the original apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, where Newton considered the laws of gravity. The tree is called Flower of Kent, a traditional variety, which produces cooking apples of varying sizes.

An email from the organization says there are many universities around the world that have twins of the original tree. It鈥檚 not known how the idea to send universities Newton鈥檚 apple trees came about and there doesn鈥檛 seem to be a tradition or policy, it says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 likely this was spread more by word of mouth between universities.鈥�

The tree is an icon of learning, discovery and the start of the era of modern science, the trust says.

In 1820, a storm blew over the original tree, but it survived and continued to grow new roots, the organization says.

Seeds from its descendants have also defied gravity and made a trip to space, thanks to Robert Prince, professor emeritus of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto.

Astronaut Steve MacLean was Prince鈥檚 student. He was assigned to a space flight in 2006 and his former teacher had a task for him. He wanted MacLean to take a picture of an apple floating over his head.

鈥淚 had this idea of doing something rather humorous with this apple over his head and staying and not falling like Newton鈥檚 theory of microgravity,鈥� Price said in an interview.

When MacLean told Prince he wasn鈥檛 allowed to take fresh fruit because of contamination, the seeds were sent up instead.

Prince said the seeds are now in the possession of the physics department at York University.

鈥淭hey may go on display at some point along with other MacLean鈥檚 artifacts.鈥�

The trees on York鈥檚 campus were planted in 1999.

Originally three trees were planted but some didn鈥檛 survive because of the climate, while others were damaged. Only one took root.

鈥淚t survived and bore fruit quickly,鈥� Prince said. 鈥淚 was surprised at how quickly we got fruit off it.鈥�

The apples are not very big. 鈥淟ike a crabapple size,鈥� he added.

There has also been an imposter of the Newton apple tree in Canada.

Two Newton apple trees at the National Research Council in Ottawa were thought to be grafts from the original tree that were sent over in the 1960s, but it was determined they were unrelated to the tree Newton sat under. The tree was a Newton鈥檚 apple, but a variety of the fruit.

Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, who exposed the imposter trees while working on a book for the council鈥檚 centennial celebrations in 2016, says he felt guilty having uncovered it.

His plan for a limited-edition coffee table book was going to include a memento from the apple tree: a leaf or a seed. During his research, he found that the twin from the original apple tree died possibly victims of disease or Ottawa winters, in the 1990s.

鈥淚t sort of popped a balloon because people had a lot of pride seeing those two trees and there鈥檚 a big bronze plaque in front of it here in Ottawa,鈥� he said.

To be sure, he sent off leaf samples to an agricultural institute in England, which confirmed his research.

That year, he contacted York University and was sent a seedling from one of their Newton apple trees, which is growing at the research council.

Newton probably wasn鈥檛 clunked on the head with an apple but the tree is still a touchstone linked to a significant point in scientific history, Bourgeois-Doyle said.

Newton鈥檚 trees combine history, science, folklore and legend, which makes them enchanting, he said.

鈥淚f you can hold something in your hand or touch or look at something and that has a thread going back to Woolsthorpe Manor, it has a little bit of magic to it.鈥�

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press

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