The Figs of Plaza del Cristo de Burgos

Four of Seville's biggest fig trees didn't start out on this plaza at all. City gardeners moved these Moreton Bay figs here from Parque de María Luisa around 1925, an unusually bold transplant for trees of this size, and they took root well enough that the biggest now measures 7.2 metres around and 28 metres tall. The species, native to the coastal forests of eastern Australia, is known for the buttressed, almost architectural roots it grows to stabilize such a heavy crown, and for aerial roots that descend from its branches and thicken into secondary trunks over time. Every one of the four gets pruned back hard each spring, not for the trees' health but for Easter: Semana Santa's processions route directly through this plaza, and the candle-bearing floats need branches out of the way. The square itself has changed names more often than the trees have changed address, known at various points as Plaza de Argüelles, Plaza Virgen del Pilar and Plaza de San Pedro before settling on its current name, and locals called it the Plaza de las Magnolias for years even though the ficus, not the magnolias, dominate the space today. All four are individually protected on Seville's own register of singular trees, a rare case of a whole relocated group qualifying together rather than one specimen alone.