A few hours after sunset on Thursday, a jacaranda tree that has been missing for nearly nine months was returned to the University of Sydney's quadrangle.

It isn't exactly the same as the iconic tree that stood in the quadrangle for 88 years before collapsing in October last year, but it is as close as you can get.

Sydney University Grounds Manager Mark Moeller and ground staff with a jacaranda tree which was successfully cloned from the original tree in the main quadrangle. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The new tree is a genetically-identical clone of the original jacaranda, grown by grafting cuttings from the original plant to the root of another jacaranda tree.

"There's a little scar on the base of the tree, you can see it if you look carefully," the university's landscape and grounds manager Mark Moeller said. "But it's genetically-identical from the ground up."