The Araucaria of Plaza de Calvo Sotelo

A Norfolk Island Pine is neither a pine nor from anywhere near Spain. The species grows wild on one small island in the South Pacific, about eight kilometres end to end, and nineteenth-century gardeners carried it to every warm coast they could reach because it does something no Mediterranean native does. It builds itself in flat horizontal tiers, one stacked above the next, and it holds that shape in salt wind. Alicante's grows on Plaza de Calvo Sotelo, the square everyone here calls the Plaza de las Palomas after its pigeons. Local historians describe it as centenaria, over a hundred years old, and that is as precise as anybody has been willing to be. There is no planting record and nobody has put a tape around the trunk. If you know either figure, tell us. The city's own walking route through the old centre stops on this square and names three trees: an elm, a plane and this one. The araucaria is the only conifer of the three and the easiest to pick out from across the plaza, a dark green spire in a place otherwise built for shade. The square is one of Alicante's social and festival grounds, which means the tree has spent its entire life standing over crowds. It is free, unfenced and open at every hour, five minutes on foot from the trams at Luceros.