The Tulip Tree of Proosdijpark

The tulip tree is not a European tree at all. It belongs to the forests of the eastern United States, where it grows taller than almost anything else that drops its leaves in winter, and this one has spent roughly the last century doing it in a village park in Limburg, ten minutes on foot from Meerssen station. It hides its best trick in plain sight. In June the crown fills with greenish-yellow cups streaked orange at the base, shaped near enough like tulips to have named the species, and held so high that most people walk under a flowering tree without seeing a single flower. The leaves settle the identification from the ground: four lobes and a flat top, as though someone took scissors to the tip. In October the whole crown turns clear yellow. Its age is softer than it looks written down. The register that records this tree puts the planting at around 1900 and marks even that with a question mark, so call it a century and leave room on either side. Nobody has put a tape around the trunk either. If you know when it went in, tell us. It stands in the Proosdijpark, a listed monument site in the middle of the village, free and open, on the side towards the kerksteeg.