The Chilgoza Pine of the Main Walk

In 1915 the garden's curator, Richard Lynch, recorded this pine at 5.4 metres. It has since reached 14.4, and the Botanic Garden says no other specimen in the British Isles appears to have grown so well. In the language of tree recorders, that makes it a champion, the best example of its kind in the country. This is a rarity entry rather than an ancient one. The Chilgoza pine, also called Gerard's pine, is not a tree most visitors will have met, and what earns this one its place is how well it has done in a Cambridge garden, nearly tripling its height since the First World War. That 1915 measurement is the oldest fact on record about it, and it tells you the tree was already established then. When it was planted, the garden does not say, and no one has published an estimate of its age. If you know, tell us. The champion status rests on the garden's own account rather than a published register entry, so read the crown as the garden's claim. It stands on the Main Walk, the same avenue as the paired black pines Henslow planted, and the garden is ticketed, about fifteen minutes on foot from Cambridge station.