Silky Oak

It belongs to the protea family alongside banksias and macadamias, native to the subtropical forests of eastern Australia. Brisbane's, in the species' own homeland, is 32 metres tall and roughly a century old, taller than almost any grevillea gets. Setubal's flowers in spring with dense one-sided combs of orange, more like a bottlebrush than anything most people picture when they hear silky oak. Measuring them is another matter. Barcelona's has a municipal girth of 4.1 metres and an independent 2017 measurement of barely half that, and in Alicante two standing eleven metres apart at either end of the Canalejas fig avenue agree on their height and disagree on their waistline by a factor of three. The wood was once prized by cabinetmakers for a silvery figure in the grain.