What is the oldest tree in Formentera?
The oldest tree on Formentera is the Savina de Ses Salines, a Phoenician juniper standing in Ses Salines Natural Park about 250 metres from Ses Illetes beach. The regional register and an independent island survey both put it at over 500 years, without stating an upper bound. It is free to visit, on the public coastal path between La Savina port and Ses Illetes, reachable on foot or by bike from the ferry.
The regional register (Balearic government) and a 2022 island survey of notable trees agree closely on the tree's description and both stop at the same phrase: over 500 years. Neither source puts a ceiling on that figure, so it is best read as a floor rather than a precise estimate. Phoenician juniper on this coast is usually a low, salt-scoured shrub bent away from the wind, but this specimen is 7.5 metres tall with a crown 12 metres across and a trunk 94 centimetres thick, close to three metres round. The register's own explanation is that nothing ever grew close enough to compete with it, so it spread wide instead of straining upward. It was catalogued as a singular tree on 11 June 1993. Ownership is recorded inconsistently, one source naming Spain's coastal authority and the register itself naming Salinera Espanola, the historic salt company behind the surrounding lagoons, though this does not affect public access: the tree sits inside Ses Salines Natural Park on the coastal path, and in summer cars are kept out of the wider area to protect the park.
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