The Catalpa at the Town Hall

This catalpa stands outside Heerlen's town hall, built from the local Kunrade limestone in a style locals still call Roman, and the register bands its planting to 1910-1920, putting it at around 110 years, roughly as old as the building's neighbourhood setting. A 2021 note in the register records that the tree has since been given a bench built around its base and steel props holding up a swing hung from one of its limbs, a small piece of civic care that most trees on this list have not had recorded for them. Southern catalpa is an American tree, grown for its broad heart-shaped leaves and, in midsummer, loose clusters of white, orchid-like flowers spotted purple and yellow inside each throat. Long bean-like seed pods follow in autumn and can hang on through winter, which is where the tree's other common name, Indian bean, comes from, misleadingly, since it has no connection to India at all. A public bench built around a tree is usually a sign a town has decided that tree matters to keep. The register is the only source describing this one specifically. If you know its planting story, tell us.