What is the oldest tree in Leiden?

Leiden's oldest-tree claim rests on unusually good paperwork: the Hortus Botanicus itself has a dated planting record naming Herman Boerhaave, the seed's origin in Virginia, and even the London merchant who shipped it, which is why the Tulip Tree of Boerhaave anchors this page with more confidence than most European cities can offer for anything close to 300 years old. The garden's Golden Chain Tree very nearly beat it: a popular story once dated it to 1601, but the Hortus's own archival research debunked that in the 1930s and settled on the 1720s instead, a rare case of an institution correcting its own legend downward rather than letting it stand. Everything else on this list is honestly younger and, in two cases, in worse health than its age alone would suggest. The Beets Beech on the Burcht mound and the grafted beech at Groenesteeg cemetery are both documented from the 19th century, both genuinely remarkable, and both currently fighting root disease that their respective caretakers are actively trying to treat rather than simply watching. None of that uncertainty changes what each tree has already lived through; it only means a visit sooner is better than one deferred.