The Bunya Pine of the Palazzo della Provincia

The cones of this tree can weigh up to about ten kilograms, which is why people in Australia are told not to park under one. This Bunya pine on Viale Matteotti in Imperia is 26 metres tall and 3.45 metres round, according to Italy's national list of monumental trees, and it is the only one of the province's listed trees in the city itself. The Bunya pine comes from the rainforests of south-east Queensland, where Aboriginal peoples gathered in great numbers for the bunya nut harvest. It reached European gardens in the nineteenth century and suits the Riviera, where frost is rare. You can tell it from the palms and pines around it by its shape: a straight trunk carrying a dense dome of stiff, prickly, glossy leaves arranged in whorls, more like a giant candelabra than a pine. It stands at the Palazzo della Provincia, the provincial government building, on the main road through Porto Maurizio. Nobody has published when it was planted or how old it is. If you know, tell us. Our pin is the register's point. The tree is tall enough to see from the street, and seeing it costs nothing.