Savina de Ses Salines

Probably the oldest juniper in the Balearics grows in a dune about 250 metres from Ses Illetes, the best known beach on Formentera. The regional register and a 2022 island survey of notable trees agree on the phrasing and refuse to go further than it: over 500 years. Neither puts a ceiling on that figure, so read it as a floor rather than an estimate. Phoenician juniper on this coast is usually a low, salt-scoured thing, bent away from the wind and going nowhere in a hurry. This one 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 explanation for the size is plain enough: nothing ever grew near enough to compete with it, so it spread instead of straining upwards. It was catalogued as a singular tree on 11 June 1993. Who owns it is less settled. One record puts it with the Spanish coastal authority, the regional register with Salinera Espanola, the historic salt company behind these lagoons. Neither answer changes what a visitor meets, because the tree stands inside the Ses Salines Natural Park on the public path between La Savina port and Ses Illetes, twenty or thirty minutes from the ferry on foot or by bike. In summer the cars are kept out to protect the park, which suits the tree. Almost everyone who passes it is walking to the beach with their back to the dunes.