The Kloosterpark Holly

Holly rarely gets old enough to earn a place on a page like this one, which is what makes this specimen worth the detour. Tucked in the same forgotten corner of the Leijpark as its oak and lime neighbours, all three named for a convent that stood here until the early twentieth century, this large-leaved holly is thought to be around 120 years old, an unusual age and size for a species usually seen as garden hedging rather than a tree in its own right. The national register that is its only record calls it simply grootbladige kloosterparkhulst, the large-leaved cloister-park holly, without settling which large-leaved species it actually is: Ilex x altaclerensis and Ilex latifolia are both candidates, and a visitor who can tell the two apart would be doing this page a favour. The convent itself, home to the Congregatie van Onze Lieve Vrouw der Afzondering in het Cenakel from 1908, is long gone, its garden folded into the wider Leijpark when the land was redeveloped. What is left is this quiet triangle of three old trees at the park's far northeast edge, a five minute add to the existing walk, free and open daily, no ticket, no convent left to visit but the ground it once stood on.