The Prince Jean Chestnut

This is the one tree on this list whose age nobody has to estimate. It was planted in 1921 to mark the birth of Prince Jean on 5 January that year, and it has been called after him ever since. He went on to become Grand Duke. The tree is 105. It stands in Parc Pescatore, a horse chestnut measuring 3.64 metres round and 23 metres tall at the last survey around the year 2000. Being named has cost it some freedom. The plaque reading Arbre du Prince Jean was once fixed to the trunk itself, which a photograph from 2002 still shows; in 2008 a metal cage went up around the trunk to protect it and the plaque moved onto the cage. The man it commemorates kept the habit up. In 1989, for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession, Grand Duke Jean gave every commune in the country a young lime, so there is a whole generation of Luxembourgish limes that are the same age for the same reason. September and October are when this one is worth a detour with children. Horse chestnuts drop conkers, and a mature tree over a park path drops a great many of them.