The Magnolia Ring of Jardim de São Lázaro

Twelve southern magnolias stand in a ring around the lake in the oldest public garden in Porto. The Jardim de São Lázaro opened in 1834, the city's first, and the magnolias came later. The register recorded them at 100 years when it measured in 2004, which puts them near 120 now and means they were planted into a garden that was already the best part of a century old. Magnolia grandiflora is from the American southeast and is built for this job. The leaves are thick, dark and permanently glossy, with a rust-coloured felt on the underside that shows when the wind lifts them. In early summer the flowers open the size of a dinner plate, cream white, and carry the length of the lake on a still evening. Each of the twelve has a trunk about 2.6 metres round and stands close to 16 metres tall. They were classified as a single group in 2005, which is the right way to read them: one lake, one loop of path, all twelve in view as you walk it, rather than twelve separate trees to hunt down. Porto has other notable magnolias, including one classified only recently. This is the set arranged around water, in the garden the city opened first.