What is the oldest tree in Monchique?
Monchique's mapped trees are three Trees of Public Interest: the Barranco dos Pisoes plane, 41 metres tall and classified in 1947, the Norfolk Island pine of the Quinta da Vila in the municipal park, and a Monchique oak beside the EN 267. The forest service gave each an age of about 150 years when it measured them in 2006.
All three are on the national register of Trees of Public Interest kept by the ICNF, Portugal's forest service, and on the town's own list. The plane was protected first, in 1947, the other two in 1993. The plane stands at the entrance to the Barranco dos Pisoes leisure area beside the Poucochinho mill, on the PR4 Trilho dos Moinhos walk about two kilometres from the centre. The araucaria rises over a small terrace of the Parque Municipal and is visible from across the village; a second, taller classified araucaria at the Quinta do Viador is a different tree. The oak is a Quercus canariensis, which in Portugal grows wild only in the Serra de Monchique and the Mira basin, and it is a roadside view on a national road with no footpath. Monchique is reached by bus from Portimao in about 40 to 50 minutes, and from Lagos in about an hour and a half with a change in Portimao.
One of Monchique's trees also appears in The Tallest Trees We Have Measured.