In German this tree is called the Geweihbaum, the antler tree, and in winter you can see why. The Kentucky coffeetree grows few, thick, blunt twigs, and once its leaves are down the crown looks less like a tree than a rack of antlers held up against the sky. It keeps that look for a long part of the year, because it is among the last trees to leaf out in spring and among the first to drop in autumn. The English name comes from its seeds. Settlers in North America are said to have roasted them as a coffee substitute; the raw seeds and pods are toxic, so this is a story to enjoy rather than test. Berlin made this one Naturdenkmal 1-53/B on 2 March 1993 for a single reason, rarity, and it is the only coffeetree among the Berlin trees we map. It stands on the Märkischer Platz, opposite Wallstrasse 53, and was photographed in leaf in May 2024. The leaves, when they come, are worth a look: each one is a doubly divided frond of many small leaflets, and a single leaf can reach the better part of a metre. It also makes an easy pair with the velvet-leaf euodia on Fischerinsel, about 600 metres away. Berlin's register records no age and no girth for it. If you know when it was planted, tell us.
Maerkischer Platz, opposite Wallstrasse 53, Berlin-Mitte You can recognise it by its thick, sparse twigs, like antlers in winter, and in summer by huge leaves split into many small leaflets. It stands on the Märkischer Platz, opposite Wallstrasse 53.
Free, public square (Maerkischer Platz), open at all times.
U2 Maerkisches Museum, about 3 minutes on foot (approximate).
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