The Caucasian Wingnut of Emile van Loonpark

The tallest of the four trees we map in Emile van Loonpark comes from the furthest away. This Caucasian wingnut on the railway side of the park stands 23 metres high, a metre above the horse chestnut behind the pond, on a trunk 3.69 metres round. Its species grows wild from the Caucasus to northern Iran, along rivers and in damp lowland woods. The Landelijk Register Monumentale Bomen bands its planting to the decade 1900 to 1910, so it is about 120 years old, and lists it as standing in a group rather than alone. The register's notes are not cheerful. The inspector suspected heart rot, recommended an investigation and recorded a good deal of dead wood. That inspection, in March 2023, is the last the register shows, and we have found nothing since, so we cannot say whether the investigation happened or what it found. If you walk past, tell us how it looks. The moment to come is late summer. In August and September a wingnut hangs long green strings of winged nutlets from its branches, which is the easiest time of year to pick it out. The park is free and open daily, about ten minutes on foot from Roosendaal station by way of Stationsstraat. Within a couple of hundred metres stand the park's other registered trees: the black locust at the Markt end, the silver maple behind the library and the horse chestnut behind the pond.