Three ancient oaks made this forest famous.
Ancient trees in Denmark
Copenhagen's remarkable trees come with tape measurements, which is rarer than it should be. This page maps 24 remarkable trees across 3 cities in Denmark, each one researched and verified. The oldest of them is Kongeegen (the King Oak) in Jægerspris Nordskov, at estimated 1,500 to 2,000 years old, based on a 1965 tree-ring investigation.
The Danish dendrological society has surveyed them one by one and filed them under working names: a beech in Frederiksberg Have is registered as Bøgen ved Bådfarten, the beech by the boat trip, which makes it the easiest tree in the city to find. A honey locust has been on record since a gardening magazine featured it in 1941. Assistens cemetery holds five of the sixteen mapped here, and the thickest tree inside its walls is a sycamore, the least exotic species in it. The oldest is Skovfogedegen, a hollow oak 11 km north of the city at the edge of the royal deer park, which three Danish sources date to around the year 1200. Twenty-three trees mapped so far, across Copenhagen and Aarhus.
Every mapped city in Denmark
1
Copenhagen16 trees · oldest roughly 800 years2
Aarhus7 trees · oldest not documented3Jægerspris Nordskov1 tree · oldest estimated 1,500 to 2,000 years old, based on a 1965 tree-ring investigation
Copenhagen16 trees · oldest roughly 800 years2Aarhus7 trees · oldest not documented3Jægerspris Nordskov1 tree · oldest estimated 1,500 to 2,000 years old, based on a 1965 tree-ring investigation15 species grow in Denmark
Oaks Pedunculate Oak 7
Beeches European Beech 2 · Weeping Beech 1
Limes Small-leaved Lime 1
Maples Sycamore 1
Figs and mulberries White Mulberry 1
Conifers Ginkgo 1 · Silver Fir 1
More broadleaf trees Black Locust 2 · Hornbeam 2 · Handkerchief Tree 1 · Honey Locust 1 · Mexican Cycad 1 · Tree of Heaven 1 · Wild Service Tree 1
The oldest tree mapped in Denmark
See every city on the map, or open the map to find what is near you.