The Old Lions of Kew

John Smith, Kew Gardens' first curator, gave five of its oldest trees a nickname that stuck: the Old Lions, veterans that have outlasted every curator, director and fashion in planting since the garden began. The group spans the site rather than clustering in one corner: an oriental plane near the Orangery, an elm, a locust, and the most storied of the five, a Japanese pagoda tree planted in 1762 that ranks among the oldest of its species growing anywhere in Europe outside its native range. All five predate Kew's formal existence as a public institution. They were already growing when Princess Augusta laid out the first pleasure garden here in the 1750s, decades before Kew merged with the neighbouring Richmond estate and grew into the botanic garden it is today. Seeing all five in one visit means crossing a meaningful stretch of the grounds, since Smith grouped them by age and survival rather than by location, but each carries its own small marker naming it as one of the Lions. Entry to Kew requires a paid ticket, unlike most of London's ancient trees, but the garden built its reputation partly on outliving its own founders, and these five are the proof of it.