The Kabouterboom

A hollow in this oak's trunk has been furnished like a dollhouse for as long as anyone in the neighbourhood can remember, complete with tiny notes left for gnomes nobody has ever claimed to see. At only about 94 years old, the Kabouterboom, the gnome tree, is by far the youngest entry on this list, included for a different reason than the others: generations of children from the surrounding Bosjes van Zanen neighbourhood have treated this specific oak as a shared piece of make-believe, tucking dolls, notes and small gifts into its hollow and low branches, a tradition adults have kept alive rather than outgrown. Nobody organizes it and no sign explains it; parents simply pass the game to their children the way they might pass down any local custom, and the tree accumulates a rotating cast of tiny residents as a result. It sits at the edge of the Clingendael estate, an easy detour from the veteran linden a short walk away, proof that a tree earns a place on a list like this one for reasons that have nothing to do with circumference or century, and everything to do with what a neighbourhood decided to make of it.