The Ravenscourt Park Tree of Heaven

Tree of heaven is the species councils spend money removing. This one has a plaque. The circular green plaque at its foot calls it one of the largest examples of the species in the country and one of the Great Trees of London, and the Tree Register's champion database carries it too, with at least one account calling it the tallest of its kind in Britain. Nobody gives it an age, and that absence is the interesting part. Ailanthus altissima arrived in Britain from China in the 18th century, spreads by seed and suckers, and is usually treated as short-lived, rarely making it much past fifty years. Something this size therefore breaks the pattern for its own species, and since no source anywhere offers a planting date, this entry gives no age rather than inventing one. It qualifies on size and status, not on years. It is also the cheapest addition to a walk on this whole list. The Ravenscourt Park Baobab Plane, with its swollen virus-knobbled trunk, stands about 150 metres away in the same park, which means Hammersmith now offers two Great Trees of London within a two minute walk of each other, near the sports area and the playground, five minutes from Ravenscourt Park station. The coordinates here come from the Great Trees map and are tree-level, so the pin lands on the trunk.