The Cut-Leaved Horse Chestnut of Middelheim

Most of Middelheim's fame comes from the sculptures scattered across its lawns, but one of its most unusual residents is a tree: a cut leaved white horse chestnut, a genetic curiosity in which every leaflet emerges narrow and deeply serrated instead of the broad fan shape that makes ordinary horse chestnuts so recognisable. Measured at 1.35 metres around in 2016, it is a rare enough variant that Middelheim's own dendrological collection, built up alongside the open air sculpture museum that gives the park its international reputation, treats it as one of the grounds' notable specimens in its own right. The wider Middelheim estate combines with neighbouring Den Brandt and Vogelenzang to form the Nachtegalenpark, merged into one public green space in 1911 after the city bought up what had been a string of private pleasure estates dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Sculptures by artists from Rodin to contemporary names now stand under a tree canopy considerably older than the museum around them, and this misshapen horse chestnut, planted for its oddity rather than its beauty, has outlasted several generations of visitors who came only for the art.