What is the oldest tree in Heede?
The Riesenlinde zu Heede, at the village entrance off the Hauptstrasse. Widely reported as the thickest lime tree in Europe, with published girths of 15.39 and about 17.50 metres. Estimated at 600 to 800 years, not the thousand the local nickname claims. It is the only tree mapped here, published alone under the single-tree exception.
The two published figures for this lime's waist sit nearly two metres apart. German Wikipedia says 15.39 metres. The Nationalerbe-Baeume programme, measuring in December 2018 at 1.30 metres above the ground, gives about 17.50. Take either figure and there is still nothing comparable in a village this size. Heede put the tree on its coat of arms. It stands at the entrance to the place, off a side lane from the Hauptstrasse, and remains the point where processions form and open-air services are held, the work a village lime has always done here. People call it the thousand-year lime; no expert will sign that off, and the sourced estimate is 600 to 800 years, the nickname affection rather than dendrology. Its formal status is Nationalerbe-Baum, the federal designation reserved for Germany's most outstanding individual trees, which buys it support structures and continuous care; that programme's own documentation, last noting a maintenance visit in March 2020, called the tree completely healthy. Height is put at 20 metres, or roughly 24 by estimate.
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