Maxie Adler holds her hands to the side of her face and grins, staring at the cuttings with baby sprouts from elder cottonwoods — known as grandmother and abuela — that once stood strong at the border in Lochiel. She reaches down to carefully cradle a small planter. Skinny stems now at a Tucson garden burst with budding bright green leaves.
The cuttings are from centuries-old cottonwood trees that lived along the U.S.-México border — in a remote area in the San Rafael Valley about 25 miles east of Nogales — until about a month ago. Grandmother was rooted in Arizona. Abuela was rooted in Sonora…