Written by a botanical illiterate.
The tree CAN produce its own “seeds”, and perhaps propagate from spreading roots. Go figure; a solitary tree produced more of its own species/offspring which may or may not be genetically identical to the ‘parent’.
The author clearly never passed basic botany and would likely believe that deciduous dicotyledons are a dinosaur species.
-——The tree CAN produce its own “seeds”-——
Not to be contentious but, the article says the acorns were infertile. Why the acorns are infertile is not stated.
My all American Chestnut trees produce infertile chestnuts if there is no pollen from another tree. Female flowers artificially pollinated produce fertile chestnuts while adjacent flowers not pollinated do not.
Also, those with blighted main stems produce new growth from the base. I never thought of this as clonal growth but as growth produced by extensive structure beneath the soil that is always blight free.