The Oriental Plane of Janskerkhof

Janskerkhof looks like a churchyard and mostly still is one, a square in central Utrecht built around the Gothic Jans Church, with a weekly flower market and, in its northeast corner near the old cantonal courthouse, a single Oriental plane the municipality dates to 1900. That makes it the youngest of the register's Utrecht street trees rather than the oldest, and its interest is less about age than about staying put: more than a century in a paved civic square that has hosted markets and gatherings throughout, without losing the tree that anchors its corner. Oriental plane sheds bark in patches as it grows, the way a sycamore does, leaving a mottled grey, green and cream trunk that reads almost camouflaged against stone. This one has had over a century of pavement compaction and passing traffic to contend with, which the register does not comment on beyond dating the planting, so no vitality note beyond that exists yet. It stands in the open square, free to walk up to any day, opposite number 13 Janskerkhof. Nobody has published an independent account of this specific tree beyond the municipal register, so treat the date as the council's own record rather than a cross-checked fact.