The Green Lady of Krka (Skradinski Buk mulberry)

At Skradinski Buk, the famous falls of the Krka, a white mulberry about 400 years old stands on the right bank, below the ruins of the Budim mill. Mulberry leaves are the only food a silkworm wants, and in the 1830s Skradin, just downstream, was the largest silkworm-breeding centre in Dalmatia. The national park, which manages the ground and published the tree's details itself, calls this mulberry a symbol of that silk past. The mill is a ruin. The tree is still in leaf. The trunk is 4.75 metres round at chest height. The park puts its age at about 400 years and gives no basis for the figure; a trunk that size is consistent with a few centuries, but nobody has counted rings. In 2023 it was voted Croatia's Tree of the Year with 653 votes, and the following year it went to the European contest under the name the park gave it, the Green Lady of Krka National Park. It did not place near the top. That hardly matters on the day. The falls draw the crowds, and they will still be there in another 400 years. The silk trade is already gone, and this tree is what the park keeps to remember it by. If you know how old it really is, tell us.