The Himalayan Cedar of the Crystal Palace

This cedar stands directly in front of the pond at the Palacio de Cristal, a 19th century glass and iron pavilion built in 1887 to exhibit plants and animals brought back from the Philippines, and it has spent most of the pavilion's history as part of the same postcard view: the glass palace reflected in the water, framed by the cedar's dark, tiered branches. Deodar cedars come from the western Himalayas, where the name deodar derives from a Sanskrit phrase meaning timber of the gods, and the species reached European ornamental gardens in the early 19th century as one of many exotic conifers collectors raced to introduce. Madrid's climate, hot and dry in summer rather than the Himalayan cedar's native monsoon-fed mountains, has suited this specimen well enough that it now ranks among Retiro's six officially singular trees, protected under the same regional catalogue as its more famous neighbour, the disputed-age Ahuehuete a short walk away.