The Red Oak of Grande Allee

Grande Allee was planted with elms, and one of the largest trees on it is an oak. The city's inventory records this one as Quercus rubra, northern red oak, with 120 centimetres of diameter at breast height, which converts to roughly 3.77 metres of girth; Quebec publishes the measurement across the trunk rather than around it. That is a genuinely large oak for a street, and larger than either of the two elms on this avenue. Where it came from is another matter. The city's heritage page on Grande Allee names the American elm as the avenue's historic planting and does not mention oaks at all, so this tree's species and existence rest on the municipal forestry survey rather than on the heritage record, and no source anywhere gives it an age. What the heritage page does confirm is that this stretch was formally inventoried for heritage trees in 2011, so somebody with a tape measure has been here. It stands on the public pavement of one of the most-walked avenues in the city, on the route between the walled old town and the battlefield park, free and unrestricted at any hour.