National Heritage Trees

The National Heritage Trees initiative of the German Dendrological Society (DDG) searches, maintains, preserves and protects unusually old trees in Germany .

Project

The aim of the initiative is to honor one hundred ancient trees and to raise awareness of these special trees. By observing - also from a scientific point of view (e.g. biology , genetics , pathology ) -, caring for and promoting these trees, conditions should be created for old age.

To be recognized, the trees should be over 400 years old and have a trunk height of around 130 cm and a circumference of at least 400 cm. They must belong to species that can even live to be over 500 years or 750 to 1000 years old. These include sweet chestnut , yew , white elm , ginkgo , plane tree , giant sequoia , summer linden , pedunculate oak , sessile oak and winter linden as well as sycamore maple , European larch and Swiss stone pine in the mountains .

Management and funding

A board of trustees was founded within the DDG in 2019 to pursue the goals of the initiative, select the trees and, among other things, conduct public relations.
The initiative will be financed by the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation until 2024 .

Excellent trees

In October 2019, the 600 to 800 year old summer linden tree in the Lower Saxon community of Heede was named the first “national heritage tree”.

Explanation of the following table:

No. = consecutive number according to the DDG
Date = date of inclusion in the list of trees awarded by the initiative
Type = type and the scientific name in brackets

Location = place / district / country

K = coordinates; Note: at the top right of the article, the link " Map with all coordinates "

Age in years

Circumference in meters

Comment / s - a " bold link " leads to a separate article for the respective tree

No.	date	Art	photo	location	K	Age	scope	Remarks
1	October 8, 2019	Summer linden ( Tilia platyphyllos )	more pictures	Heede district of Emsland , Lower Saxony	52.99221 7.30815	600 ... 800	17.50 (12/2018)	" Riesenlinde zu Heede ", " 1000-year-old linden tree ", or " Big Linden tree " The tree is said to have been the Burglinde of the former Schärpenburg, which was destroyed by the Swedish general Rabenhaupt in the last Dutch war of Bishop von Galen.
2	20th October 2019	Ginkgo ( Ginkgo biloba )		Riesa - Jahnishausen , Meißen district , Saxony	51.27425 13.28786	210	5.15 in 80 cm height (8/2019)	The tree is in the park of the former castle.
3	October 30, 2019	European yew ( Taxus baccata )		Flintbek , Rendsburg-Eckernförde district , Schleswig-Holstein	54.2383 10.06701	600 ... 800	3.93 (8/2019)	The " Flintbeker Yew " stands near the churchyard of the Flintbeker Church .
4th	March 29, 2020	English oak ( Quercus robur )		Küps - Nagel , District of Kronach , Bavaria	50.190067 11.24185	~ 600	9.70 (1/2020)	The “ millennial oak ” stands at the Alte Kemenate castle . It still contains lead balls and bolts from the Thirty Years' War . The Swedish equestrian general Lennart Torstensson besieged the castle for several months without success. The castle was shot at and the oak was also hit.
5	September 26, 2020	Summer linden ( Tilia platyphyllos )		Oberndorf am Neckar - Hochmössingen , Rottweil district , Baden-Württemberg	48.3140567 8.5316283	600 ... 800	7.90 (9/2020)	The " Käppeles-Linde " or " Dorflinde " is one of the strongest linden trees in Germany and one of the oldest trees in Baden-Württemberg. The Irish scholar and poet James Henry reported about the linden tree in 1856 in his travelogues “Hike from Karlsruhe to Bassano”.