The Douglas Fir of Queimadas

A Douglas fir has no business in a laurel forest, and this one is 39 metres tall. It is the tallest tree on this list, a North American conifer planted inside Parque Florestal das Queimadas, which sits in the laurisilva that UNESCO listed as World Heritage: the largest surviving remnant of the laurel forest that once covered much of southern Europe. Madeira's register lists it for size at 3.61 metres round, condition good, age no reference. Worth being straight about what it is. Nothing here is native, and it is on this page because it is a genuinely large specimen at a place people already come to, not because it belongs to the forest around it. That place is the trailhead for PR9, the Levada do Caldeirao Verde, one of the walks that brings people to Madeira in the first place, and the register calls Queimadas one of the most visited sites on the island. The park is free and open, with the levada path running off into the laurel. Nobody has dated the fir, and there is a reason not to guess from its height: Douglas firs grow fast, so a big one need not be an old one. If you find a planting record, send it.