Seasons0 of 4
Every October the fallen leaves of this katsura smell of burnt sugar, a scent so distinctive that visitors to the Stewart Biology Building courtyard use it to find the tree before they see it. Planted in 1965 by C. Darnley Gibbs, the McGill botany professor who oversaw the building's opening, it has grown three trunks from one base rather than one, the widest just under a metre round. Montreal's own remarkable-tree register calls it among the largest katsuras in the region, ahead even of the specimen at College Notre-Dame across town. Gibbs used the sheltered courtyard as a private trial ground, filling raised beds with unusual specimen trees, each given its own microclimate by the surrounding wings of the building. The katsura's companion from that same planting, a dawn redwood, still grows a few metres away. John Watson, who manages forest operations at the nearby Morgan Arboretum, once pointed out what most passersby miss. The underside of a katsura leaf is magnificent, turning purple in autumn while the top goes from green to yellow to pinkish beige. Then the leaves drop, and the courtyard fills with the smell of caramel. At about sixty years old this is one of the younger trees on this list, and it earns its place on one specific kind of afternoon: step into the courtyard in October and follow your nose.
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Getting there
Courtyard of the Stewart Biology Building, McGill University, near 1205 Avenue du Docteur-Penfield, downtown Montreal
You can recognise it by the three trunks from one base, the widest about a metre round, and the smell of caramel from fallen leaves each October. It stands in the Stewart Biology courtyard, beside a dawn redwood planted the same year.
McGill University campus. The tree stands in the interior courtyard of the Stewart Biology Building, between its two wings. A 2008 Spacing Montreal article gives visiting directions ('the easiest way in to see the tree is from Dr. Penfield Street, half a block west of Peel Street'), which reads as a walk-in courtyard reached from the street rather than through the building's interior. Montreal's own register calls it a 'cour restreinte' (a confined courtyard) framed by tall buildings, which is a description of the space rather than a stated access restriction. Campus grounds are open in daylight; whether this specific courtyard is gated outside class hours was not independently confirmed this pass, so state the caveat on the page.
McGill metro station (Green Line), about 10-12 minute walk uphill via Peel Street or McTavish; also reachable via Peel or 144/24 bus routes on Sherbrooke
Autumn colour
October, when the fallen leaves smell of caramel
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.