The Horse Chestnut of the Kerkbuurt

A fungus at the foot of a tree is the last thing to appear, not the first. By the time brackets are showing at the base, the organism has usually been working through the roots and the butt of the trunk for years, and what you can see is only its fruit. That is roughly the story the register tells here. After a century of standing quietly in the green strip of the Kerkbuurt, this horse chestnut has gone downhill sharply in the last few years, and the inspectors think the heavy fungal growth at its base is the likely reason. They are careful about it: possibly, they write, not certainly. They put the planting at around 1925, which makes the timing tidy to the point of being irritating. It is faltering at almost exactly a hundred. A horse chestnut does not read as an ancient tree at that age, but a hundred years is a long working life for one standing in a village verge. Westzaan is a ribbon village strung along a single old road, and the Kerkbuurt is its church quarter. Nothing in the register says this tree is coming down, but one in that condition is worth going to see sooner rather than later. It still flowers white in May and it still drops conkers in autumn. The national register is the only source that describes it, so if you know its history, tell us.