The Opatovice Pine

Locally this pine is the six-headed dragon, and the count is literal. The trunk divides into five stems just above the ground, and one of those splits again into three about eight metres up, so the crown reads as a cluster of separate trees that happen to share a base. That habit also makes its girth an argument. Measured around the whole base cluster it comes to 480 centimetres; measured on the single strongest stem at chest height it is 337. Both numbers are correct and they describe different things. Height is about 20 to 21 metres, and the age is given consistently as around 250 years, which would make it the oldest Austrian pine in the Czech Republic. It has never been designated a heritage tree in its own right, for the good reason that the whole chateau park around it already carries that protection. The park is 13.5 hectares and has been open to the public since the early 19th century, so the tree has spent its adult life being walked past. It is ageing, described as still vital, and carries dynamic bracing in the crown to hold the stems against wind. In 2014 the country voted it Czech Tree of the Year, and in 2015 it came fifth in Europe. Velke Opatovice has a railway station and the park is a short walk from the centre.