This is a conifer that goes bare every winter. A bald cypress grows needles like a pine and then, each autumn, turns them copper red and drops the lot. It is a rare tree in Berlin's parks, and this one, north of the rose garden in the Bürgerpark Pankow, is under state protection. Berlin made it Naturdenkmal 3-48/B on 2 March 1993, for its beauty and for regional heritage. The register's point marks the tree itself, so the pin takes you to the trunk rather than to a corner of the park. The moment to come is October into November. The whole crown changes colour and then strips itself. The copper is the reason to make the trip; the bare frame that follows is why the species is called bald. It is not the only one on our Berlin map. Another bald cypress stands in the palace garden at Charlottenburg, on the far side of the city, so a reader who likes this one has a second to find. The Bürgerpark is free, about ten minutes on foot from S and U Pankow. Nobody has published an age, girth or height for this tree. If you have measured it, or know when it was planted, tell us.
round wrinkled cones turn from purplish green to brownthe soft needles turn copper red, then the whole tree drops them
October into November, when the needles turn copper red before they fall
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Buergerpark Pankow, north of the rose garden You can recognise it as a conifer whose soft needles turn copper red in autumn and are gone by winter. It stands in the Bürgerpark Pankow, just north of the rose garden.
Free; public park.
S/U Pankow, about 10 min walk
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.