Photo: Line1 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Somebody has put a tape around this trunk three times in forty years: 3.30 metres in 1980, 3.89 in 2001, 4.40 in 2021.
Saw-leaf Zelkova
A Korean queen is recorded resting under one of these in 1882, in disguise, on her way out of a capital where soldiers had just stormed the palace over unpaid wages. This page maps every saw-leaf zelkova on the site, 4 so far across 4 cities.
The zelkova at Hwayang-dong is about 700 years old and has not moved since, twenty eight metres tall with a trunk seven and a half metres round. In Japan the species is keyaki, the timber temple carpenters and taiko drum makers reach for first, which is a decent explanation for why very large ones are uncommon. Kyoto's grows just inside one of the gates of the old palace enclosure and its age is a straight blank. Florence's has been measured three times in forty years, 3.30 metres round in 1980 and 4.40 in 2021, so you can watch it grow without waiting around.
Florence
Seoul
A queen once caught her breath under this tree while fleeing a mutiny.
Leiden
These are the first zelkovas that ever left Japan.
Kyoto
Keyaki, the Japanese name for this species, is the timber temple carpenters and drum makers reach for first, which is one reason very large ones are not common.
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