THE ICONIC EIFFEL Tower could be turned into a 300m-high ‘tree’ on the Paris skyline – if one French company gets the go-ahead to festoon it with thousands of plants.

Under the plans, the iron struts of the tower built in 1889 would be covered with as many as 600,000 plants hanging from ropes.

Reuters reports that consultancy firm Ginger, who are promoting the scheme, said it would signify “the reconciliation of nature and mankind”.

However, the idea has not been endorsed by Parisian authorities. According to AFP, officials yesterday issued a statement rejecting “the existence of any kind of project to ‘plantify’ the Eiffel Tower.”

The scheme was first reported by French newspaper Le Figaro, which said it would turn the tower into “the biggest tree in the world”. The project would see 600,000 plants grown in bags of soil which would be hung from the tower’s supports by hemp ropes.

The vegetation would be watered using 12 tonnes of tubing and a pumping system.

However, the scheme met a dubious reception from tourists yesterday. “The whole point of the Eiffel Tower is that it is an engineering masterpiece,” one told the Telegraph. “We have come to see the wrought iron – if we wanted to see a hanging garden we would go somewhere else.”