What is the oldest tree in Matera?
Matera's most substantial mapped tree is the Black Poplar of Timmari, a Populus nigra with a trunk 420 centimetres round, growing at a spring on the Colle di Timmari, an archaeological hill 9.5 kilometres west of the city centre. None of Matera's four trees carries a documented age: the regional register that lists them gives girth and height but no planting record, and this page states that gap plainly rather than guessing.
All four trees come from Basilicata's regional register of monumental trees or, for the Date Palm of Borgo La Martella, the independent Italian volunteer registry RAMI, which lists trees the regional register does not. Two stand close to the centre: the Pine of Viale Aldo Moro, a five minute walk from Matera Centrale station, and the Mahaleb Cherry of Contrada La Vaglia, on a state road on the city's northern edge, whose exact roadside access this page has not fully confirmed. The other two sit further out. The Black Poplar of Timmari grows at a spring on an archaeological hill 9.5 kilometres west, reachable on foot through the Parco Archeologico Appulo-Greco di Timmari; Matera's own hiking club, CAI Matera, runs an eleven kilometre loop trail past it. The Date Palm stands in Borgo La Martella, a planned village built in the 1950s to rehouse families from the Sassi, 5.7 kilometres west. None of the four is dated: the register records size, not age, and this page leaves that field open rather than estimating one it cannot support.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.