The Fourteen-Trunked Caucasian Wingnut

The Great Wingnut of the Flora sends up fourteen trunks from a single base, which is not how Caucasian wingnuts usually grow. Most stay to one, or split into a modest two or three; this one has been suckering and re-rooting into a thicket for long enough that Cologne's own natural-monument register lists it as a single designated tree with fourteen daughter stems. It stands in the Flora, the city's botanical garden in Riehl, opened in 1864 on the ground the old botanical garden gave up when the main railway station needed the space nearer the cathedral. Wingnuts and ginkgos were among the species planted when the garden was new, which puts this tree's species on site since the founding, though nothing on record says this exact multi-trunked specimen is that old rather than a later addition. A second, single-trunked Caucasian wingnut is registered nearby, so look for the fourteen trunks rather than the species alone. No girth or age has been recorded against it, an honest gap rather than an oversight: a tape measure around any one of the fourteen trunks would be a start. The garden is free and open daily until dusk, tram to Zoo/Flora and a short walk in.