What is the oldest tree in Catania?
Catania's oldest tree with a claimed planting date is the Moreton Bay fig in Villa Bellini, which one source dates to 1860 and a second, independent registry puts nearer 146 years old; neither figure has been withdrawn, so this page states both rather than picking one. The other three trees here carry no age at all: two bunya pines in the same garden and a dragon tree in the university's botanical garden have never been dated by any source, which is normal for their species and stated plainly rather than guessed.
Every tree on this page comes from Italy's national register of monumental trees, cross-checked against the independent Italian tree registry RAMI and, where it exists, local coverage. The national register gives girth and a surveyed position and rarely an age, which is why three of these four entries carry none, and its height figures for both bunya pines do not match RAMI's own measurements, a discrepancy each tree's own story states rather than silently resolves. Three of the four stand in Villa Bellini, Catania's main public garden, free and open daily; the fourth, a dragon tree, stands a few minutes further up Via Etnea inside the university's botanical garden, which charges a small entry fee and closes on Sundays, stated honestly in that tree's own access line. One further register candidate was checked and left off: a second large fig at Villa San Saverio, on the grounds of a university residential college with a controlled reception desk and no evidence of public access, kept as a lead rather than published.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.