What is the oldest tree in Bari?
Bari's oldest tree, by the best available evidence, is the Lie Tree of Quasano, a holm oak in the Murgia hamlet of Toritto planted in the second half of the 19th century, putting it at roughly 125 to 175 years old. The Pine of Carrassi, inside the city itself, sits in a nearly identical range, estimated at around 150 years by a University of Bari botanist who cautions that dating either tree precisely is very difficult.
Age here is a matter of best evidence rather than precision, because none of Bari's four officially monumental trees carries a measured planting date. The Lie Tree of Quasano has the strongest documented basis: local sources say it is absent from the estate's own land records before the mid-1800s, and its name comes from complaints peasants traded beneath it in the disillusioned years after Italian unification. The Pine of Carrassi rests on a University of Bari botanist's estimate of roughly a century and a half, given with the same caution. The two younger trees, an Argentine ombu and a Mexican ponytail palm sharing a bed in Piazza Umberto I outside the central station, are neither dateable by growth rings (both are technically giant herbs, not true trees) nor documented at planting. The Quasano tree is a genuine day trip, about 30 km from the centre with no direct rail; the other three sit within a few kilometres of Bari Centrale.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.