The Rotbuche of the Dresdner Heide
In October 2002 a hurricane found a fork in this beech that nobody knew was failing, and more than a third of the crown came down. Two years earlier Dresden had made it a natural monument, measured at about 35 metres tall, 5.70 metres round and with a crown some 28 metres across. At that point only one beech in the city was bigger, the one behind the Weisses Schloss in Cossebaude. What stands in forest section 109 of the Dresdner Heide today is the tree that came out of that storm: lower than the 35 metres in the record and lopsided where the crown went. Every photograph on file was taken after the damage, so they show the beech as a visitor will meet it rather than as it looked on the day it was designated. The age given in 2000 was about 250 years, and that was an estimate then. Add the years since and it lands somewhere around 275, give or take a few decades. The ordinance protects a ring of 18 metres around the trunk along with the tree itself. It stands a short way into the forest, about 150 metres north-west of the point where Radeberger Strasse crosses the forest ride called Schneise 8. Our pin is approximate, so expect to look around for the broken crown once you reach the crossing.
beech mast, small triangular nuts in prickly huskscopper and russet, and young trees keep dead leaves all winter
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Dresdner Heide, forest section 109 (Revier Langebruck), about 150 m north-west of the crossing of Radeberger Strasse and Schneise 8 You can recognise it by the lopsided crown, more than a third of it lost to a storm in 2002, above a trunk about 5.70 metres round. It stands about 150 metres north-west of where Radeberger Strasse crosses Schneise 8.
Free. Stands in the public forest of the Dresdner Heide (Sachsenforst), a short way off the Schneise 8 forest ride; no entry charge.
Not verified. Inside the Heide, over 30 minutes from the centre; reached on foot from the Radeberger Strasse side. Check timetables before quoting a stop.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
