Lady of the Park, Terra Nostra Norfolk Pine

Parque Terra Nostra calls this tree the Lady of the Park and says she is 52 metres tall. That is the park's own figure, published when it entered her for Portugal's Tree of the Year 2026, and it is a remarkable one for a Norfolk Island Pine on the Azores. Nobody independent has measured her, so read it as a claim, not a record. The park also puts her age at about 200 years, and that is the only estimate there is. Terra Nostra goes back to the 1780s, when Thomas Hickling founded a garden in the Furnas valley, and it was enlarged in 1935. No source connects the Lady to either moment, so her age stays the park's word. Which araucaria is she? A ring of them stands around the park's thermal pool, and the nomination did not say where she grows. The pin is the single tree mapped under the name A Araucária do Terra Nostra, the best candidate but not a certainty. If you have stood under her and know which one it is, tell us. She stands in the heart of the Furnas valley, in the park's words, and the park is a paid garden in the village itself, about 45 minutes by car from Ponta Delgada. The result of her national entry is not on record yet.