The Balearic Box of the Orto Botanico

Box is usually a hedge plant, clipped into shapes barely taller than a person. This one is seven metres tall, a Balearic box growing to the size of an actual tree, which the species rarely does anywhere it is not native. Its natural range is the Balearic Islands and a sliver of the southwest Mediterranean coast; everywhere else it stays a shrub, including, almost everywhere, in this garden's own country. The Orto Botanico's own account, not independently re-checked this pass, puts the planting at around 1880, which would make it roughly a century and a half old, modest in girth (88 cm) but old for how slowly box grows. Italy's monumental tree register designates it in its own right, a second signal beyond the measurements that this is not just an old hedge left to run wild. It stands inside the garden's paid grounds, a short walk from the bald cypresses at the pond. If you know its planting date for certain, tell us.