The Figs of Plaza del Cristo de Burgos 100 years
San Vicente, Casco Antiguo. Four of Seville's biggest fig trees didn't start out on this plaza at all.
Moreton Bay Fig
A Moreton Bay fig announces itself at ground level first: buttress roots the height of a person come snaking across the earth like walls, and the trunk they support looks less grown than poured. This page maps every moreton bay fig on the site, 10 so far across 5 cities.
In its native eastern Australia the species often starts life as a strangler high in another tree, sends roots down, and eventually stands on its own; planted in the mild coastal cities of Europe and beyond in the 19th century, it skipped the strangling and went straight to the monumental, single trees shading entire plazas within a human lifetime. It needs frost-free air, which is why every great specimen marks a mild microclimate. The Moreton Bay figs mapped so far are listed largest and oldest first.
Seville
The Fig of the Glorieta de Goya 100 years
Parque de María Luisa. Two marble columns are the only physical trace left of the pavilion this fig tree now grows inside.
Valencia
El Titan, the Ficus of the Parterre 174 years
Ciutat Vella. Gardeners planted this fig by accident in 1852, confusing the young sapling for one of the 47 magnolias also going into the newly laid-out Parterre garden that year, the same year Valencia's first railway line opened.
The Ficus of the Countess of Ripalda approximately 135 years
Exposicio, El Pla del Real. A garden fashion imported from the French Riviera is the reason this tree exists at all.
Malaga
The Fig of the Picasso Gardens 100+ years
Cruz de Humilladero. This fig predates the garden built around it by decades.
Palermo
The Ficus of the Orto Botanico approximately 181 years
Kalsa. The most famous fig tree in Palermo is not the one in Piazza Marina, it is that tree's parent.
The Ficus of Piazza Marina approximately 162 years
Kalsa. Half of Palermo's most famous tree is dying.
The Ficus of Villa Trabia undated, likely planted in the late 19th century
Libertà. A single 1910 inventory of Villa Trabia's grounds recorded 2,790 plant species on one aristocratic estate, and one of the Ficus macrophylla planted for that collection is still standing, its trunk now nearly five metres around.
The Falcone Tree approximately 90 years
Libertà. This fig has been Palermo's memorial wall for over three decades.
Cadiz
The Ficus of Alameda Apodaca approximately 123 years
San Carlos. Four fig saplings carried from India by missionary nuns are the origin story behind this tree and its three siblings scattered across Cadiz.
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