The Sessile Oak of Musispark

Sonsbeek Park's oaks get most of Arnhem's attention, but a fifteen minute walk closer to the station, in the smaller Musispark behind Musis Sacrum, a sessile oak has been standing since roughly the 1890s with nobody much noticing. The monumental tree register ties its planting to a renovation of the singel plantsoenen, Arnhem's ring of canal-side parks, carried out to Leonard Springer's design around 1890, a decade after his prize-winning Velperplein scheme across the water. Sessile oak differs from the pedunculate oak that fills most of the Netherlands by carrying its acorns on short stalks pressed close to the twig rather than dangling on long stems, worth checking if you want to be sure which species you are standing under. This one grows about 65 metres from a Canadian poplar the national register lists as the oldest of its kind in the country, so a single stop in this park puts two record-adjacent trees within sight of each other. Both are free to reach, along Eusebiusbuitensingel near the start of Parkstraat, no gate and no ticket. The register is the only source that has written this tree down; a Gelderlander photograph or an older map naming a firmer planting date would be welcome.