The Wingnut of the Hoofddorp Market
When Hoofddorp built a new shopping centre around its market square, the municipality made saving this tree a condition of the plan. That is on the record as the reason it is still there, planted, the register says, around 1935, in front of what is now the market hall. Caucasian wingnut is not a tree many Dutch town squares grow. It comes from wet valley floors in the Caucasus and northern Iran, suckers readily from its own roots, and in midsummer it hangs strings of winged nutlets half a metre long from every branch tip, for a few weeks looking like a tree decked out for a parade nobody announced. Being kept during redevelopment is not the same as being cared for since, and the register does not say anything about its condition today. What it records is a species and a rough decade, and nothing else has been published about this particular tree. It stands in the middle of Hoofddorp, free to walk up to any day of the week. If you know more about why the council insisted on keeping it, tell us.
Catkins
midsummer, when strings of winged nutlets half a metre long hang from every branch
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.
Markt, in front of the market hall, HoofddorpYou can recognise it in midsummer by strings of winged nutlets hanging half a metre long from every branch tip. It stands on the Markt, in front of the market hall, Hoofddorp.
Free, on the Markt in front of the market hall, always visible.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Landelijk Register Monumentale Bomen (Bomenstichting), no. 1690485
- monumentalebomen.nl
- services-eu1.arcgis.com