La Ceiba of Tamboril

The historian Frank Moya Pons called it the largest and most robust tree in the Dominican Republic, and it is protected under its own name, as the Monumento Natural La Ceiba. How large is another matter. Diario Libre reported 55 metres tall with a crown 43 metres across. International Parks and the paper Acento say about 25 metres tall, with a trunk more than 12 metres wide, a figure that probably takes in the great buttress roots fanning out from its base. Either way it is a kapok of a size you do not forget. Age is guesswork too, but the guessers are serious. Milciades Mejía of the Academia de Ciencias and Ricardo García, director of the national botanic garden, told Diario Libre in 2019 that it could be about a thousand years old. Ceibas grow fast and nobody has published how they arrived at the figure, so hold it lightly. The tree stands at Los Peña, beside the road between Licey and Tamboril, about twelve kilometres from Santiago. Its care has been shared between the environment ministry and local groups, not always peacefully: in 2024 one of them protested at being left out of a new agreement. If you have visited, tell us how close you could get.