The Plane of the Catholic Cemetery

This plane stands in the south-west corner of Amersfoort's Catholic cemetery on the Utrechtseweg, tall enough now to be visible over the cemetery wall from the street outside. London planes were planted in Dutch cemeteries through the late nineteenth century for a practical reason: the species tolerates compacted soil and heavy shade better than almost anything else that grows this large, which matters on ground crossed with paths and graves. The bark comes away in patches the size of a hand as the trunk outgrows its own skin, leaving a mottled grey, green and cream pattern that is the tree's normal healthy state rather than any kind of damage. The register bands its planting to the 1890s, putting it just past its first century and a quarter. Cemetery trees like this one are some of the least disturbed in any Dutch town, since nobody prunes a graveyard tree for looking untidy the way a street tree gets cut back. Free to visit. The cemetery is open during daylight hours, as is normal for a working Catholic burial ground, and a walk between the graves brings you directly under the crown.