The Daukantas Memorial Oak

The tree commemorates a walk. Simonas Daukantas, the 19th-century historian, came to Vilnius University on foot from Žemaitija, and the oak that carries his name in the courtyard named after him was grown from an acorn brought back from that same corner of the country. It is not an old tree, and it is not here for that. Nobody has published a planting date. Lithuanian Wikipedia says it went in for the university's 400th anniversary, and since the university was founded in 1579 that points at 1979 and an age of about forty-seven. The year is arithmetic on the anniversary, not something any source states. The planting did not go smoothly either. Two earlier saplings failed and were replaced, and some of those survivors are now said to stand next door in the Sirvydas Courtyard, which is why accounts of which oak is which do not entirely line up. The tree Vilnius protects under this name, listed as a heritage object since 29 May 1996, is the one at this pin. Daukantas walked from Žemaitija to study here, which in the 1810s was a serious undertaking rather than a gesture. The tree is the university's way of keeping the walk in the ground. If you know which oak is which, or when this one actually went in, tell us.