The Tulip Tree of Biscainhos

Portugal shortlisted this tree for its Tree of the Year in 2026, one of ten finalists nationally. It is a tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, native to the eastern United States, and the coverage of that shortlist calls it the largest of its kind in the country. The measurements depend on who took them. Portugal's register of trees of public interest recorded 6.5 metres round the trunk, 27.4 metres tall and a crown of 18 metres when it classified the tree in 2010. The 2026 reporting gives 30 metres and 19. Both are plausible for a tree that has kept growing, and neither is picked here as the winner. Age is firmer. The register put it at 270 years at that 2010 measurement, which makes it roughly 285 now, and the newspaper coverage places the planting in the reign of Joao V, who died in 1750. It went into the baroque garden of the Palacio dos Biscainhos, a hectare of formal beds, orchard and kitchen garden behind a Braga townhouse that is now the city's museum. It was planted as one of a symmetrical pair. The other tulip tree lasted until the late 1970s; a replacement went in nearby in 1997 and is still an obviously young tree. The gap between the two is the clearest thing on the site for understanding what 285 years actually does.