The Flame Tree of Vivai Lo Porto

Sicily's register of monumental trees files this one as the Albero del fuoco, the tree of fire, and the name is literal. Brachychiton acerifolius sheds its leaves before it flowers, then covers the bare branches in small scarlet bells, so a big one in bloom carries down the whole length of the street. It does not do it in full every year, which is normal for the species and is part of why people remember the years it does. This is a big one: 4.5 metres round, 20 metres tall, and described by Italian Botanical Heritage as over one hundred and fifty years old and one of the most important trees in Palermo. That is exactly as precise as the dating gets, and it stays there. It grows in a plant nursery. Corso Calatafimi 262 was an eighteenth century estate belonging to the last Inquisitor of Sicily, then a nineteenth century garden of acclimatisation, and the Lo Porto family have been selling plants from the ground since 1960. The tree was standing here long before the tills were. Eighty-five metres away is Palermo's largest dragon tree, also on this page, so one address gets you both. You walk in during opening hours and nobody stops you, but it is worth knowing that this is a working nursery rather than a garden arranged for visitors.