What is the oldest tree in Segovia?
Segovia's most remarkable tree is La Reina, a giant sequoia in the gardens of the royal palace at La Granja de San Ildefonso. Patrimonio Nacional now gives it 46 metres, which makes it one of the tallest trees in Spain. Nobody publishes an age for it, though the garden's conifer planting dates from the nineteenth century.
There is no answer to the age question here and it is worth understanding why. Castilla y Leon's register of notable trees, which is where every tree on this page comes from, records species, place, height and a trunk figure, and it has no age column at all; the entries were made in 2006 under a regional order and have not been revised. So what can be said about La Reina is what is measured. The register gave it 42.5 metres in 2006 and Patrimonio Nacional now says 46, which is the growth you would expect from a healthy sequoia over twenty years. It was struck by lightning in 1991 and carries a conductor now. It stands with a companion, El Rey, in front of the palace collegiate church, both over 40 metres. The garden's own history says its exotic conifers went in during the nineteenth century, which would make these trees 150 to 180 years old and not ancient at all. They are here for size. Getting there: the bus from Segovia takes about 20 minutes.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.