Urkietako Artea (Encina de Urkieta)

Holm oak belongs to dry, inland Spain, to Aragon and Andalusia and the country's hot interior. It has no obvious business in the rain-fed Basque Country, which is exactly what makes this one worth a detour. It is one of only two centenarian holm oaks recorded anywhere in Biscay province. The Urkietako Artea stands beside a road crossing in Muxika's San Roman district, opposite the village railway station. At some point its trunk was encouraged to branch low rather than climb, and it has taken that instruction seriously. The crown forks at just 1.5 metres and spreads into a canopy 26 metres across, on a tree only 12 metres tall. A regional landscape blog and a Spanish tree-reference site agree on the numbers, including a girth of 430 centimetres, corrected from an early misreading of the same figure as a diameter rather than a circumference. The Basque Government declared it a singular tree in 1995. No age has ever been published for it, and none should be guessed from girth alone without a growth-rate study for the species in hand, so the field stays open here. What it has is protection, a good crown and a rare address for its kind. If you have stood under it and know more, tell us.