The Figueira Gigante of Tijuca

In October 1968 the state of Rio put this fig beyond the reach of a chainsaw. Decree E 2433 lists it as imune ao corte, immune from felling, which is a legal category the state heritage institute keeps for individual remarkable trees rather than for buildings. It has stood on the pavement of Rua Mariz e Barros ever since, in front of number 678, opposite the SENAI building. It is a strangler fig, a mata-pau, a plant that begins life in the fork of another tree and finishes by replacing it. This one has a short, thick, grooved trunk and a sprawl of aerial roots that have interlaced into something between a wall and a cage. The heritage catalogue calls it secular, centuries old, and puts no number on it, so neither will we. One source is all this tree has: a heritage catalogue entry naming the decree. What that leaves you with is a protection order from 1968 and an address you can go and test. Which is also the honest gap here. We have not found a dated sighting of it in recent years, only the listing, unchanged. If you walk down Mariz e Barros and it is still standing over the pavement, that is worth telling us, and so is the opposite.