The Red Horse Chestnut of Van Cortlandt House

This tree grows on the east lawn of the Van Cortlandt House, built in 1748 and the oldest building still standing in the Bronx, and local tradition holds that a member of the Van Cortlandt family planted it themselves, though no source confirms exactly when. Red horse chestnuts are themselves a hybrid, a cross between the European horse chestnut and a red-flowered American buckeye species, bred for ornamental gardens rather than found in the wild, which means whoever planted this one chose it deliberately for its spring flowers rather than letting it seed in naturally. At nearly 88 feet tall with a trunk over three feet across, it has grown large enough to be one of three horse chestnuts at the house included in the NYC Parks Great Trees registry, all three now part of a Great Tree Clone Program in which cuttings are propagated and planted at new sites around the city, extending the genetic line of trees like this one even as the originals eventually age out. Van Cortlandt House operated as a Revolutionary War-era headquarters at times for both American and British forces, meaning this tree, whatever its precise age, grows on ground that has seen the city's founding conflict up close.