The Busanjin Crape Myrtles (Yangjeong-dong)

These two trees are one national monument, and at least one of them has outlived its own trunk. The original stem rotted away long ago and what stands today grew on from the edges of it, which is how a crape myrtle carries on: not one trunk but a cluster of smooth, sinuous stems rising off old rootstock. South Korea designated the pair together on 7 April 1965 as Natural Monument No. 168, quantity two. They stand on either side of the tomb of Jeong Mun-do, founder of the Dongnae Jeong clan, at the Jeongmyosa shrine in Hwaji Park. By the clan's own tradition one was planted on each side of the grave in the Goryeo period, which put them at roughly 800 years old when the state listed them and nearer 860 now. That is a genealogical date carried down by the family who still manage the site, not a measured one, and it is best held loosely. The taller of the two reaches 8.3 metres. Nobody has recorded a girth, which for stems like these is understandable; there is no obvious place to put a tape. Come in the heat. From late July into mid-August both trees carry red flower over a shrine that is quiet the rest of the year. It is an ancestral grave as well as a park, so walk it accordingly.