Autumn colour
For two weeks in October the ground under this tree smells of gingerbread.
Katsura
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
Katsura grows wild in the old forests of Japan, and its oldest trees rarely keep their first trunk. We map 17 of them, in 14 cities.
The Great Katsura of Itoi, in a gorge near Asago, is a hollow stump ringed by roughly eighty root suckers, over 18 metres round together and put at more than a thousand years; a travelling priest is said to have draped his robe over it and prayed for rain. At the Koganeyu hot spring in Sapporo, a katsura became a god, worshipped as Fudo Myoo standing in tree form. The species travels well. The Sapporo Katsuras in Boston grew from seed William S. Clark sent from Japan to the Arnold Arboretum in 1878. Every October the yellowing leaves give off maltol, and the ground under a katsura from Gdansk to Pittsburgh smells of burnt sugar.
Berlin
Autumn colour
Berlin protects this katsura for three reasons at once: beauty, rarity and regional heritage.
Autumn colour
In October the air under this tree smells of burnt sugar.
Montreal
Autumn colour
Every October the fallen leaves of this katsura smell of burnt sugar, a scent so distinctive that visitors to the Stewart Biology Building courtyard use it to find the tree before they see it.
Photo: Alex Baxter (CC BY)
Boston
Autumn colour
These two trees began as seed in a packet posted from Sapporo.
Philadelphia
Autumn colour
Philadelphia Magazine once called this the largest tree in Philadelphia, which is a bold thing to say about a tree barely 120 years old.
Gdansk
Autumn colour
In October this tree smells of caramel.
Fukuoka
The tree at the centre of this tree is gone.
Photo: Pekachu (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sapporo
Autumn colour
The hot spring came up under this tree, and the tree became the god.
Photo: 禁樹なずな (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Autumn colour
There is uncut forest 3.7 kilometres from Sapporo station.
Asago
During a historic drought, a travelling priest is said to have draped his robe over this katsura and prayed for rain.
Photo: さかおり (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Koriyama
Japan made this katsura a national natural monument on 27 January 1941, and it has been getting smaller ever since.
Morioka
The tree standing here exists because the one before it was cut up for the roof.
Okuizumo
Autumn colour
The trunk that started this tree is gone.
Pittsburgh
Autumn colour
In autumn, a katsura smells of burnt sugar.
Ueda
Autumn colour
A novel and a film were named after this tree.
Photo: Kuruman (CC BY 2.0)
Unnan
Autumn colour
The trunk that made this tree is gone.
Photo: さかおり (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Explore by city: Berlin · Montreal · Boston · Philadelphia · Gdansk · Fukuoka · Sapporo · Morioka · Pittsburgh · every city · or browse all species.