A sign of spring: The Survivor tree is in bloom

photo AssoPress

NEW YORK — A pear tree that miraculously survived the Sept. 11 terror attack blossomed at ground zero on the first day of spring.
The Survivor Tree blossoms, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at the World Trade Center in New York.

The "Survivor Tree" — as it's been dubbed — was discovered amid the smoldering rubble, limbs lifeless, roots snapped, trunk blackened. Workers freed it and it was nursed back to health in a Bronx park before it was replanted.

Now topping 30 feet — four times its size in 2001 — it towers above other trees in Memorial Plaza at the World Trade Center. On Tuesday, it sprouted white blossoms, seen for the first time by visitors to the 9/11 memorial that opened last September

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