Remarkable Trees of France

At 420 years old, the black locust tree in Square Rene Viviani is the oldest in Paris.
Credit: Joann Pai for The New York Times

 

From the NYT article "Admiring the Trees of Paris," the story of Arbes, a volunteer organization 

made up of some of the country’s most eminent scientists, botanists, gardeners, writers and horticulturalists that aims to promote and protect the most beautiful, important and rare trees in France with a formal label, "Remarkable Tree of France."

Also on the list: a 420-year-old tree that is not particularly striking, but has extraordinary cultural and biological significance.

Brought over from North America and planted in 1601 in the small Square Réné Viviani, across the street from the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the black locust, or Robinier faux acacia, is the oldest tree in Paris. Its foliage still blooms green and full, but the tree bears scars from bombing and shelling during World War II and its splintering trunk is supported by steel beams.

“She is the mother plant,” Béatrice Rizzo, a city forest engineer, explained to me during a guided visit. “You could say that all the black locust trees in France came from this one tree.”

In addition to the Arbres list, which can be found online, the city of Paris keeps a separate, more expansive catalog of remarkable trees — all 176 trees are plotted on a public interactive map. Both lists share similar criteria that include age, size, botanical and cultural importance.

The black locust at Square Réné Viviani carries the Remarkable designation from both the city of Paris and Arbres, and is the last of six stops on a self-guided, walking tour of trees created by the city. 

I've often walked around town and noted some remarkable trees in the neighborhood.  Remarkable Trees of Western Springs? Of Chicagoland?   I'm curious about the Arbes organization itself.  How did it start?  Are there meetings?  That task feels like something that Art of Noticing would care about.

 The city’s contemporary tree-planting scheme could be seen as the revival of a long heritage of urban planners harnessing the beautifying, cooling and calming power of trees. Some of Paris’s first tree-lined promenades can be traced back to the 17th century, when Queen Marie de Médicis requested walking paths not far from her palace in the Jardin des Tuileries where she and her friends could take leisurely strolls away from daily traffic. The result was the Cours la Reine, four long rows of trees that today stretch from Place de la Concorde to Place du Canada.

Under the vision of the public servant Georges Eugène Haussmann and his lead engineer, Adolphe Alphand, trees also played a central role in the city’s colossal 19th-century reinvention. Over 17 years, the total number of trees nearly doubled from around 50,500 to 95,600. Today, the uniformity of tree-lined boulevards and the leafy, shaded passageways in parks also endow Paris with an unique landscape.

Here's a PDF from Arbes that leaves me wishing that I could read more French.

Here's the French wikipedia page, translated, about the group, which includes a listing of the designated trees.  And here's an example tree label:

From the website of Arbes, which I ran through Google Translate:

The discovery of exceptional trees for nature lovers

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION

Created in 1994, the ARBRES association (Remarkable Trees: Assessment, Research, Studies and Safeguarding) aims to:

• To be a gathering place for all those interested in Remarkable Trees.
• Stimulate in-depth research, both biological and historical or folkloric (legends and traditions) on these witnesses of the past.
• Help initiatives for local inventories of remarkable trees, by publicizing past or current achievements.
• Give our support and help to all those who wish to save one of these trees threatened either by disease or by harmful developments.
• Create an effective label around Remarkable Trees to protect them.
• Disseminate knowledge of all kinds concerning these trees by organizing visits, seminars, conferences, discussions, exhibitions, writings.

The association organizes field trips for its members, these can last several days and allow the discovery of the remarkable trees of our regions, through the traditions and history of their commune.

The association publishes "La Feuille d'arbres" every quarter .

A traveling exhibition "Tour de France of remarkable trees" allows to better know this heritage, sometimes millenary.