The Butterfly Scholar Tree of Bolin Temple

A scholar tree's leaf usually runs to a dozen or more leaflets. This one carries seven, small and loosely hung, and in wind the whole crown moves like a cloud of butterflies. That is where the name comes from: the butterfly scholar tree, a rare cultivar of which only two or three others are known anywhere in Beijing, at Guangji Temple and Jingshan Park. This is the oldest and largest of them. It went in during the renovation of Bolin Temple in 1758, the twenty-third year of the Qianlong reign, which puts it at roughly 250 years. Fifteen metres tall, 1.8 metres round. The temple around it is older still, founded in 1347, and takes its name from its trees: Bolin means cypress forest. Old cypresses, pines and a ginkgo share the grounds with it, and the tree stands in the Weimo Pavilion courtyard rather than out front. Entry is free and the gates are open through the middle of the day. The temple has been a nationally protected relic since 2006, which is some reassurance, because there is a gap in what we know: we found no dated sighting of this particular tree after 2020. If you get there and it is standing in its sevens, tell us. The pin marks the temple building, not the courtyard within it.