The Cedar of Pastoor Sickingstraat

Eindhoven's own tree database contradicts itself about this tree. One field of the record calls it a blue Atlas cedar. Another field in the same record gives the species as Cedrus libani, the cedar of Lebanon, which is what the national register calls it as well. The two registers point at the same spot, less than three metres apart, so this is one tree wearing two labels rather than two trees. The species are close relatives and genuinely hard to tell apart: both hold their branches out flat in layers, both carry short needles in tufts, and it is the cones and the needle detail that settle the question. We have listed it as the cedar of Lebanon because two of the three entries say so, and we are flagging the disagreement rather than tidying it away. If you can settle it standing underneath, tell us. The rest is plainer. The city dates the planting to 1930, which puts the tree at about ninety-five years, and records it at fifteen to eighteen metres. The national register lists its history as unknown, which is a register's way of saying nobody ever wrote anything down about it. Its surroundings are far younger than it is. The Joriskwartier went up mostly around 2006, by which time this cedar had been standing for some seventy-five years. It now holds a layered evergreen crown over a paved street, in a neighbourhood built around it.