The Tulip Tree of Luiseninsel

Most of Berlin's protected trees made the list for being rare, old or tied to the city's history. This one was protected for its looks. When Berlin named it Naturdenkmal 1-42/B on 2 March 1993, the register gave a single reason: Schönheit, beauty. It is a tulip tree, a North American species, and it stands on the Luiseninsel, a small island inside the Grosser Tiergarten reached along the park's own paths. That is a fitting address for a tree judged on appearance, because the tulip tree is one of the easiest in the world to tell apart once you know the trick. Its leaves look as if someone took scissors to them: four lobes and a flat, notched tip where every other leaf would come to a point. In early summer it carries upright cups of pale green and orange that give the species its name, often high enough that you notice the fallen petals before the flowers. It was photographed in full leaf in May 2024, so it is alive and well, and it is the only tulip tree among the Berlin trees we map. What the register does not give is an age or a girth; Berlin's Naturdenkmal records carry neither, and we found no other source that dates it. If you know when it was planted, or you have measured the trunk, tell us.