The Three-Trunked Yew of the Velazquez Palace

Rather than one trunk, this yew splits into three, each thick enough to measure separately: 142, 120 and 140 centimetres around, fused into a single crown 18 metres wide standing beside the eastern wall of the Palacio de Velazquez, a red-brick exhibition hall built in 1883. European yews are famously slow growing and long lived, capable of reaching ages in the thousands of years in the right conditions, and famously toxic in almost every part except the flesh around the seed, a combination that has made the species a fixture of European churchyards for centuries, planted as much for its poison as its evergreen symbolism. At only 12 metres tall despite its age, this specimen shows the yew's characteristic patience: slow vertical growth traded for density and longevity. A wooden fence now rings the tree for its protection, a modest concession for one of only six trees in the whole of Retiro Park to hold official singular tree status from the Community of Madrid.