The Tulip Tree of Palacete Burmester
Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos
Porto's most celebrated tree is a tulip tree at Casa Tait, protected since 1950 and put at more than 250 years old. A little over a kilometre west, in a university garden that hardly anyone writes about, stands another that Portugal's forest register measured at the same height, 36 metres. Its trunk is 4.9 metres round, against five at Casa Tait. Its age column is empty. Matching measurements do not make matching ages, and nothing published dates this one. What the record does give is scale. The register measured it in 2020 with a crown 21.4 metres across, and it was classified in one round with three neighbours in the garden of the Palacete Burmester, the house the University of Porto now runs as the Casa dos Livros. The other three are a horse chestnut, a Himalayan cedar and a yew. Of the four it is by far the tallest, some twelve metres above the cedar. Porto seems to collect these trees. A third giant tulip tree stands at Casa Allen, about 330 metres away, and a fourth on the lawn at Casa Primo Madeira. Come in late October or November, when the leaves, cut square at the tip, turn clear yellow 36 metres up. The garden is on the Faculty of Sciences campus off Rua do Campo Alegre, a few hundred metres east of the Jardim Botanico do Porto; no opening hours for it have been published. If you know when this tree went in, tell us.
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Getting there
Jardim do Palacete Burmester ('Casa dos Livros'), grounds of the Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, Porto
You can recognise it by its height, 36 metres, the tallest of the four protected trees in this garden, with a trunk 4.9 metres round. It stands in the Jardim do Palacete Burmester, with a horse chestnut, a cedar and a yew.
Garden of the Palacete Burmester (Casa dos Livros) on the University of Porto Faculty of Sciences campus, Rua do Campo Alegre. Same garden as the horse chestnut and the yew of Palacete Burmester; no opening hours have been published for the garden itself.
STCP bus to Rua do Campo Alegre; the garden is a few hundred metres east of the Jardim Botanico do Porto.
In bloomAutumn colour
late October and November, when the crown turns clear yellow
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: ICNF Arvoredo de Interesse Publico, processo AIP13121887I
- ICNF national register of Arvoredo de Interesse Publico, processo AIP13121887I (): tulipeiro-da-virginia, girth 4.9 m, height 36 m, crown 21.4 m, l…
- ambiente.cm-porto.pt