The London Plane of Quinta Primo Madeira

At 6.4 metres around, this plane carries one of the thickest trunks measured anywhere in Porto. It is also the shortest of the three protected trees in the garden of Casa Primo Madeira, 17 metres tall against a crown 25 metres wide, which is the profile of a tree that never had to compete for light and put its growth sideways instead. Planes are the standard street tree of half of Europe and get treated accordingly: pollarded back to knuckles every few winters, cut clear of tram wires, kept to whatever size a pavement can hold. This one was left alone behind a wall for a century, and that difference is the reason to go and look at it. Portugal's official gazette classified it a tree of public interest on 30 November 2004, in one notice with the Atlas cedar and the tulip tree on the same lawn. The house behind it was built for the textile industrialist Primo Monteiro Madeira, acquired by the University of Porto, restored by Fernando Távora in the late 1980s, and now serves as Pólo 3, an academic building on a walkable campus that opened its doors to the public for Open House Porto in 2019. Come during university hours. The three trees stand within a minute of one another.