You can press a thumb into this tree and the bark gives.
Amur Cork Tree
Phellodendron amurense
You can press a thumb into the bark of this tree and it gives. We map 5 of them, in 5 cities.
The Amur cork tree carries a thick, soft, deeply ridged corky layer that dents under a hand and springs back, and Munich's natural monument ordinance protects its specimen for exactly that, an interesting bark pattern, while calling the species extremely rare in the city. Under the cork the inner bark is a startling sulphur yellow, and it is one of the fundamental herbs of Chinese medicine. Paris's went into a small garden opposite the Collège de France in 1925 and wears a lightning scar down the trunk. Washington's stand inside the Roosevelt Memorial with no provenance at all: in 1962 the Park Service went looking for a planting record, found none, and kept the trees on the grounds that they were, in its own words, very attractive old trees.
Munich
Paris
Paris classifies this Amur cork tree as one of its remarkable trees, and it carries proof of a rough century outdoors: a lightning scar runs down the trunk.
Vilnius
You can press a thumb into the bark of an Amur cork tree.
Washington DC
In 1962 the National Park Service went looking for a record of who planted these trees and found that nobody had written it down.
Manchester
Either Manchester has the tallest Amur cork tree in Britain, or somebody's tape was wrong.
Explore by city: Munich · Paris · Vilnius · Washington DC · Manchester · Prague · Brussels · Porto · every city · or browse all species.