The Pine of Kalnai Park

Vilnius protects this pine by name and has written down almost nothing else about it. The register carries Kalnų parko pušis, the pine of Kalnai Park, a designation and a coordinate, and then stops: no age, no girth, no height. Scots pine is the commonest tree in Lithuania and grows on every sandy hill in the country, which is what makes one singled out for protection worth the climb. It stands on the southwestern slope of Dainų slėnis, the Song Valley, behind the spectator stands of the amphitheatre, on a wooded hillside in Kalnų parkas that gives back a view over the Old Town on the way up. The pin is honest rather than exact. The register rounds its coordinates, and no survey position or photograph exists to sharpen them, so expect to walk the slope and look rather than arrive at a trunk. The park is small enough that this costs a few minutes. Nobody has dated it. No core, no published girth, no planting record, and nothing to reason back from. If you know the age, or have put a tape around this trunk, tell us and it goes on the page. Kalnų parkas is free and open at all hours, about 1.3 km from Bernardinų sodas, which makes this the tree that extends the Old Town walk rather than sitting inside it.