Cis Bolko (the Bolko Yew)

The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt put this yew at more than 800 years old, and nobody since has managed to confirm or disprove him. The current official estimate is about 600 years. Other sources say 700 or more. The honest answer is somewhere between 400 and 800, a range wide enough to swallow four centuries of Silesian history. Yews are difficult to date. They hollow from the middle outwards, lose their heartwood and stop keeping a countable record of themselves, which is why the arguments about them never quite end. This one measures 292 centimetres round, about three metres, and is probably the oldest yew in the Sudetes. It is not in good condition, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. The trunk is badly damaged, the crown is thin and poorly developed, and the tree now stands inside a wooden fence with metal scaffolding carrying part of its weight. It is alive, and it is alive because people decided it would be. Formal protection dates from either November 2006 or August 2008, depending on which record you read, though both describe the same listing. The tree stands beside the Pełcznica stream gorge in the Książ Landscape Park, on the green trail and the Hochberg path, reachable on bus 8 from Wałbrzych or on foot down from Książ castle. There is an information plaque at the foot of it, and for a tree this contested it is remarkably confident.