The Pollarded Linden of Fahrland

Potsdam numbers its natural monuments, and number one is a linden in Fahrland that has been cut back on purpose, again and again. The city's register calls it a Kopfbaum, a pollard: a tree whose crown is cut back at regular intervals and left to grow a fresh head of shoots. Pollarding is how people took wood from a tree without felling it, and the city notes that old pollards like this one become homes for birds and insects. The trunk under that cropped head measures 3.83 metres round. It stands at the roadside of An der Jubelitz, across the street from the mill, in Fahrland, a village district on Potsdam's northern edge about nine kilometres from the centre. One published version of the register list gives its address as Ketzinerstrasse 37 instead. The city's own page and the mapped tree both put it on An der Jubelitz, opposite the mill, and that is where our pin sits. Two things nobody has written down. The register names it only as Tilia, a linden, without saying which kind. And no source gives its age, so we will not guess one. If you can tell the species from its leaves, or know how long it has stood by the mill, tell us. It is a street tree: no gate, no ticket, and you can look at it at any hour.