The Tiger Oak of the Rensenpark

The register calls this one the tijgereik, the tiger oak, which is a nickname earned by geography rather than by anything about the tree. The Rensenpark is a park in the middle of Emmen and it is built on the site of the old Dierenpark Emmen, the zoo that stood here for most of the twentieth century before moving to a new site. The animals are gone and the park is public, but the layout remembers them, and so does this oak, which spent decades standing beside an enclosure. It was planted between 1810 and 1820, so it is a good deal older than the zoo and predates the town centre growing out to reach it. A two hundred year old oak in a former zoo is a peculiar object to stand in front of. The ground around it was, within living memory, a place people came to look at animals from other continents, and now it is grass. The tree is the only exhibit still in position. Acorns on long stalks, leaves seated almost directly on the twig. In October there will be a great many of them, and no tigers.