Ancient trees in Canada

Canada's mapped trees keep circling one epidemic. We map 56 trees in 7 cities here. The oldest of them is Big Lonely Doug in Port Renfrew, at roughly 1,000 years.

Dutch elm disease killed roughly 22,000 of Montreal's American elms, and the Last Elm of Mont-Royal is one of the few left, a self-seeded survivor growing away from the streets where the disease moved fastest. Quebec City's Plains of Abraham lost most of its mature elms the same way and still keeps about 750 of them, monitored tree by tree against the fungus a century on, alongside wych elms, a European species growing beside the American ones. Toronto took a different route: in 2022 the city named an official tree for the first time, a 220-year-old red oak in Kew Gardens with a trunk 5.3 metres round. Montreal also holds a honey locust dated from a death recorded on the gravestone beside it, and a Japanese yew that grew fifteen metres wide instead of tall.

Every place we map in Canada

1Ottawa21 trees · oldest 138 years 2

Montreal13 trees · oldest 200 years 3Vancouver7 trees · oldest 150-300 years 4Quebec City6 trees · oldest 250 years 5Toronto6 trees · oldest 300 years 6

Port Renfrew2 trees · oldest 1,000 years 7

Pelham1 tree · oldest 400-500 years

39 species grow in Canada

Oaks Northern Red Oak 10 · Pedunculate Oak 2 · Bur Oak 1 · Oak 1 · Swamp White Oak 1

Beeches Copper Beech 1 · European Beech 1 · Sweet Chestnut 1

Elms and zelkovas American Elm 3 · Wych Elm 2 · Rock Elm 1

Planes American Sycamore 1

Limes Large-leaved Lime 'Vitifolia' 2 · Large-leaved Lime 1 · Small-leaved Lime 1

Maples Silver Maple 1 · Sugar Maple 1

Chestnuts, walnuts and hazels Bitternut Hickory 1 · Black Walnut 1 · Caucasian Wingnut 1 · Horse Chestnut 1 · Turkish Hazel 1

Conifers Coast Douglas-fir 2 · Dawn Redwood 2 · Austrian Pine 1 · Ginkgo 1 · Jack Pine 1 · Japanese Yew 1 · Serbian Spruce 1

Fruit and blossom Ussurian Pear 1

More broadleaf trees American Yellowwood 1 · Crack Willow 1 · Golden Weeping Willow 1 · Honey Locust 1 · Katsura 1 · Kentucky Coffeetree 1 · Northern Catalpa 1 · Saucer Magnolia 1 · Tulip Tree 1

The 10 oldest trees we map in Canada

Big Lonely Doug

Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) · Gordon River Valley (Tree Farm Licence 46, Pacheedaht traditional territory)

Roughly 800 to 1,200 years old.

Photo: Ryan Cutler (CC BY 4.0)

Port Renfrew →

Red Creek Fir

Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) · San Juan River valley (often loosely called 'the Walbran' by visitors, but it sits in the San Juan valley, not the Walbran Valley proper)

Roughly 800 to 1,200 years old.

Port Renfrew →

Autumn colour