The Caucasian Wingnut of Valkenberg

A tree from the mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas has been growing in Breda's oldest park for close to two centuries. This Caucasian wingnut, planted around 1830 in Valkenberg beside Breda Castle and the Grote Kerk, was measured in September 2020 at 5.82 metres around, a size that reflects how fast and wide the species spreads once established rather than any particular rarity of specimen. Wingnuts were a genuine curiosity in 19th-century Dutch parks, planted by landscape designers testing what exotic species could handle the local climate, and this one has clearly handled it: its suckering roots have likely spread new stems around the original trunk over the decades, the species' usual habit when left alone in open ground. Valkenberg itself predates the tree by centuries, laid out on the grounds beside Breda Castle, once the seat of the House of Nassau and now a military academy, with the Grote Kerk's tower visible over the park's mature tree canopy. The wingnut is one of several genuinely old trees in the park, including planes and horse chestnuts pushing a century themselves, but its size and unusual leaf, long pinnate fronds rather than a single broad leaf, make it the one visitors actually stop under.