Seasons1 of 4
Banned books were hidden at the foot of this oak. Through the decades of the press ban, when Lithuanian-language books were illegal, the knygnešiai who smuggled them are said to have stashed them here and in the village of Dasiūnai nearby. That comes from one local history of Babtai rather than from several sources, which is worth saying plainly, and it fits the geography of a lone oak in an open field, 1.5 kilometres down a gravel track off the road. Dvilypis means double-bodied, and that is the shape of it. Two trunks leave one base about a metre above the ground. It is 17 metres tall and 2.6 metres round, the slighter of the two trees on this page, and it still holds the horizon, because it is the only thing standing in that field. Its age is given as about 300 years by the source, and it stays where the source put it. It sits roughly 120 metres south of the Nevėžis river valley. The Paliepiai Poplar, another registered tree, stands a kilometre northwest across the river. There is no public transport. It is a car to road RK1906 and then the gravel track, and the field is working farmland with no marked path and nothing saying keep out. The Vainiai Poplar is 27.6 kilometres away in a straight line, so it is not a neighbour of this tree. The Galiūnas Oak, 4.4 kilometres off, is.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Open cultivated field about 1.5km off road RK1906, Pakapiai village, on the Kaunas/Kėdainiai district border
You can recognise it by the two trunks leaving one base about a metre above the ground, 17 metres tall and 2.6 metres round. It is the only tree standing in the open field, at the end of a 1.5 kilometre gravel track.
Free; stands alone in an open working field, reached via a gravel track (about 1.5km) off road RK1906. No gate, fee or ownership restriction mentioned by any source; a wide field with no marked path but nothing indicating it is off limits.
No public transport; reached by car. About 27.6km by straight-line distance from Vainiai's own tree (vni_001), the nearest published place; real road distance is greater. About 4.4km from the Galiūnas Oak (this batch's vni_002), close enough to visit in the same outing by car.
Winter shapeIn fruit
January and February, when the leaves are off and the double trunk reads against an empty field
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: Saugomų teritorijų valstybės kadastras (STVK), no. 0310505010190
- lt.wikipedia.org
- stvk.lt
- babtai.puslapiai.lt
- Lietuvos Respublikos saugomų teritorijų valstybės kadastras (STVK), gamtos paveldo objektai, botanical objects, no. 0310505010190
