The Jogyesa Pagoda Tree

Every year on Buddha's Birthday, thousands of paper lanterns get strung through this tree's canopy until the entire crown disappears under a ceiling of color, and it is large enough to make that possible: its branches spread wide enough to shade the whole courtyard in front of Jogyesa's main hall. What most visitors do not realize is that the tree is far older than the temple around it. Jogyesa's current Daeungjeon hall was only built in 1938, relocated log by log from a temple in Jeongju, while this pagoda tree had already been growing on this spot in central Seoul for roughly four centuries. The species, Styphnolobium japonicum, was traditionally planted at Confucian academies and scholars' homes across East Asia in the belief that it brought good fortune and produced distinguished sons, which explains why old specimens turn up so often at former noble residences around Seoul rather than only at temples. In July and August it produces long, drooping clusters of small cream flowers that dust the courtyard stones below. Jogyesa sits in the middle of downtown Seoul, a five minute walk from either Jonggak or Anguk subway stations, so the tree gets more foot traffic than almost anything else on this list, most of it people who came for the temple and only noticed the tree once they were standing under it.