The Greenwich Park Shagbark Hickory

Britain's largest shagbark hickory, by the reckoning of the Great Trees of London list, is an American nut tree just short of 100 feet tall, growing in the Flower Garden of Greenwich Park. The list named it one of the capital's Great Trees, and a tree-care firm's round-up of London's finest gives the same height. Nobody else has published a measurement, so treat the national title as the list's claim rather than a settled record. The name describes the bark. On an old trunk it comes away in long shaggy strips that lift from the wood, which makes the tree look permanently half-undressed and is the quickest way to pick it out from its neighbours. The species belongs to the forests of eastern North America and reached Britain around 1629. This one is a long way from home and standing up well to it. What this tree does not have is a birthday. No source dates it, and nobody has published its girth either. If you know when it went in, or have stood at it with a tape measure, tell us. The pin comes from the Great Trees map rather than a survey of the trunk, so expect to look around the Flower Garden in the south-east of the park. Greenwich Park's old sweet chestnut is a short walk away, which makes this an easy second tree for the same afternoon.