The Tree of Heaven of the Grand Sablon

Ailanthus altissima is the tree cities usually spend money removing. It seeds itself into cracked pavement and abandoned lots, grows a metre a year and is treated as an aggressive invasive species across most of Europe. Brussels has done the opposite: its regional heritage inventory has listed this one as a protected monument, and put it on the Grand Sablon, the square where the city sells its antiques. The trunk measures 3.42 metres round, the ninth thickest Ailanthus recorded anywhere in the Brussels region, rising about 19 metres with roughly 9 metres of clean trunk before the crown opens. It shares its stretch of paving with two registered neighbours a few paces away, a common horse chestnut (2.74 metres round) and a Caucasian lime (2.04 metres round), so the square carries three legally protected trees within a spot small enough to take in from one bench. No planting date survives for any of the three, and nothing beyond the region's own inventory has been found describing this specimen individually, so treat its history as the register states it rather than as settled fact. What is not in doubt is the square it stands on: cobbled, lined with antique dealers and restaurant terraces, one of the most expensive addresses in the city, and home to the tree most of Europe tries to pull out.