The Eucalyptus of Benimamet

At just over 41 metres tall, this eucalyptus is the tallest tree in the province of Valencia and the fourth tallest recorded anywhere in the wider region, a scale confirmed by the city's own maintenance crews, who need aerial platforms and, for its highest branches, help from the fire service just to prune it safely. It grows in the Parc Lineal in Benimamet, on the northwestern edge of the city, next to the tram line that was later routed underground past it, and is formally listed both by the Valencia city council and in the Comunitat Valenciana's own Catálogo de Árboles Monumentales y Singulares, the regional register that protects it by law. Eucalyptus camaldulensis, native to Australia, was planted widely across Mediterranean Spain from the early 20th century onward for its fast growth and tolerance of poor, dry soil, but few specimens anywhere in the region have been left to grow as large as this one. Its trunk runs some 6.1 metres around at the base, with a crown spreading 30 metres wide, dimensions that make it visible well beyond the park it stands in.