The Copper Beech of the Schlosspassage, Grünwald

Most protected trees stand in parks or churchyards. This one stands beside a shopping arcade. The Landkreis München lists a single copper beech on Luitpoldweg in Grünwald as a natural monument, and it fills the open space at the western edge of the Schlosspassage. That is the charm of it. You do not walk into a wood to find this tree. You step off tram 25 at its Grünwald terminus, roughly 100 metres away, and there it is above the forecourt, a tall dome of dark purple leaves among the shopfronts. Copper beech is a colour form of the ordinary European beech, and the colour runs through the year: the leaves open purple in spring, darken through summer and turn copper before they fall. The pin is close but not exact. The register gives a point for this one tree, and a 2021 photograph captioned at Luitpoldweg by the Schlosspassage shows it there, but no photograph carries its own position. In practice it matters little: look for the one large purple beech beside the arcade, with a red Japanese maple at its foot. The forecourt belongs to the shopping centre, so we cannot promise it is open at every hour, though the tree is plain to see from the square. Nobody has published its age, girth or height. If you know any of the three, tell us. Grünwald is about 12 km south of central Munich, a suburban trip by tram rather than a stroll from the centre.