The Groenesteeg Beech

Two beech varieties grafted together, growing at different rates for two centuries, is why this one looks nothing like a normal beech. A copper beech was grafted low onto a common green beech rootstock, standard practice since copper beech does not breed true from seed, but the mismatched growth rates produced an unusually broad, gnarled base, branches starting barely two metres up, topping out into a comparatively slender 15-metre crown that still spreads 24 metres wide. Groenesteeg cemetery was laid out in 1813 over one of Leiden's demolished city fortifications, and the tree was likely planted around that founding date, making it roughly 200 years old, a genuine rarity since few beeches live that long anywhere. Measured at 6.5 metres in circumference, it is officially the thickest beech in the Netherlands and the thickest tree in the entire province of South Holland, wide enough that calling it merely large undersells the effect of walking up to the trunk itself. In October 2025 it placed fourth in the national Boom van het Jaar (Tree of the Year) public vote, drawing over a thousand votes on its own oddity and scale alone, beaten only by a giant sequoia in Enschede and two other regional finalists. Like its neighbour on the Burcht mound, it is fighting a root fungus, though here the cemetery's caretakers are actively treating it, with annual nutrient injections and a policy of leaving fallen leaves in place to feed the soil around its base.