The Kurogane Holly of Fukujo-ji

Japan's national giant-tree register takes nothing under three metres of girth, which is why it is full of cedars and thin on hollies. This one measures 3.1 metres and went into the register from the 1988 survey with its health recorded as good. Kurogane holly is a warm-country evergreen of southern Japan, glossy-leaved and slow, carrying a crop of small red berries through the winter; a trunk of this size represents a long time standing on the summit of Mount Fukujo-ji, though nobody has published an age for it. The temple below it claims a founding of 726 and sits at 509 metres, and the holly is part of the reason the grounds are designated at all: the cedars, the Japanese horse chestnut and this tree are counted together as the temple's giants rather than singly. Most visitors arrive in spring, when around sixty varieties of azalea are out, and walk past this trunk without a second look. The better month is November, when the berries come on and the horse chestnut beside it has dropped its leaves. The coordinate on this page covers the whole precinct, which is honest rather than precise: the three registered trees here share one pin and you will sort them out by eye.