What is the oldest tree in Hainich National Park?
The Betteleiche (begging oak), at the crossing of the Rennstieg and Hohe Strasse near Ihlefeld. Sources agree on 600 to 800 years, though nobody has cored it. It is the only tree mapped here, published alone under the single-tree exception because it is the reason to come, not a list.
The Betteleiche takes its name from a Franciscan mendicant house that stood nearby at Ihlefeld from 1442 to 1525, an annex of the St Catherine's monastery at Eisenach. Travellers crossing the forest left coins and prayer requests for the friars at the tree rather than at the door, and monks are said to have cut a hollow into the oak so the alms would stay dry. What draws people now is the shape: the trunk stands as two shells that fuse again about four metres up, a gateway wide enough to step through, widened over centuries of weather. It is short for its bulk, 13 metres tall, and measures about 5.9 metres round a metre up, though one summary gives 5.6. It is the symbol of the national park, with the waymarked Betteleichenweg trail named after it and the Rennstieg and Hainichlandweg crossing at the same point. Reaching it means 45 minutes of walking or more from the nearest trailhead. Which oak it actually is remains unsettled, sessile or pedunculate; if you know, tell us.
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