The Riesenlinde zu Heede (Giant Lime of Heede)

This is widely reported as the thickest lime tree in Europe, and the two published figures for its 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 one 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, which is 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 is 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, from 2019 and 2020 with the last noted maintenance visit in March 2020, called the tree still completely healthy. Height is put at 20 metres, or roughly 24 by estimate. Heede has no station. Papenburg, the nearest town on the railway, is 20 to 25 minutes away by car. At the tree itself there is no gate, no ticket and no hour.