Canicosa de la Sierra is a village in the Sierra de la Demanda, in Burgos province, and its famous tree is really two. The Pino-Roble is a Pyrenean oak of about 250 years with a Scots pine of about 130 growing up out of its hollow trunk. It stands a short walk from the road toward Navaleno, and in 2016 it finished fifth in the European Tree of the Year contest, representing Spain.
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Pino-Roble de Canicosa de la Sierra
Pyrenean Oak (Quercus pyrenaica) with a Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) growing out of its hollow trunk · oak about 250 years, pine growing from within it about 130 years · El Piquillo, an aged rebollo (Pyrenean oak) dehesa at about 1,200m altitude, Canicosa de la Sierra
A Scots pine is growing out of the middle of an oak. Not beside it, not leaning on it: the pine germinated inside a hollow in the oak's trunk, most likely from a cone a squirrel carried in, and has grown up through it and out of the top. The pair is known as the Pino-Roble, the pine-oak.
The host is a Pyrenean oak of about 250 years, 12.5 metres tall and 3.4 metres round. The guest is about 130 years old and has already overtaken it, reaching 15 metres. Its own trunk only clears the oak's crown at 2.9 metres up, which is where it was measured: two metres round.
This is not a peaceful arrangement. As the pine thickens it splits the oak's bark and speeds up its decay, and the site that documents the pair records signs of decline in the oak and no conservation measures in place. You are looking at a slow takeover, halfway through.
In 2016 the Pino-Roble represented Spain in European Tree of the Year and finished fifth among trees from fifteen countries.
It stands in El Piquillo, an old dehesa of Pyrenean oaks at about 1,200 metres, on communal land. From the road toward Navaleno, a painted roadside rock marked Pino Roble shows where to park, and a path of about a kilometre leads to it. One hiker warns it is easy to walk straight past.
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