The Ginkgo of Schlosspark Britz

Berlin's oldest and tallest ginkgo survived something most of its European relatives never had to: being fashionable. Ginkgo biloba reached European gardens in the 18th century as a botanical curiosity, a living link to trees that grew alongside dinosaurs, and wealthy estates across the continent planted them as status symbols rather than for shade or timber. This one went into Gutspark Britz sometime between 1880 and 1890, when royal garden inspector Wilhelm Nahlop redesigned the grounds of a former manor estate into the landscape park still standing today. It has grown a trunk over three metres around and stands close to 20 metres tall, the largest ginkgo recorded anywhere in the German capital. Ginkgos are dioecious, meaning individual trees are strictly male or female, and this one's autumn performance is the reward for the wait: every leaf turns a uniform gold within days of each other in late October, then drops almost at once, rather than the gradual, patchy fade most trees go through. The palace itself, Schloss Britz, charges a small admission fee for its restored period rooms, but the surrounding Gutspark is free and open daily, its grounds having won a national landscape prize in 1997, decades after the ginkgo inside it had already quietly become the biggest in Berlin.