Champion Trees at Buckingham Palace

During a recent survey by The Tree Register of the British Isles, a number of National ‘Champion Trees’ have been identified in the Buckingham Palace Garden. 

The Tree Register is charity that maintains a database of over 200,000 of the UK’s most notable trees and maintains the list of national ‘Champion Trees’. 

Champion Trees are individual trees which are exceptional examples of their species because of their enormous size, great age, rarity or historical significance.

Following a survey during summer 2021, 24 were identified in the Garden at Buckingham Palace, which now makes a total of over 400 Champion Trees across the Royal Estates.

Despite its central London location, the Buckingham Palace Garden is a haven of biodiversity and home to around 1,400 trees, alongside of wide variety of shrubs, herbaceous plants, wildflowers and bulbs.

Among the 24 Champion Trees in the Garden are a number of trees with a special connection to The Queen:

• Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’, Juneberry: This tree was given to The Queen for her 85th birthday from the American Ambassador, Mr Susman and his wife.
  
  
• Acer campestre ‘Queen Elizabeth’, Field Maple: This tree was given to The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
  
  
• Quercus x libanerris ‘Rotterdam’ Hybrid Oak: This tree was planted by Her Majesty in 1989 on the Round Bed, after it was given as a present from the International Dendrology Society.
  
  

The survey also identified that a Carya hunanensis Chinese Hickory in the Garden is believed to be the only specimen of its type growing in the UK.

The Prince of Wales is Patron of The Tree Register. You can find out more about their work here.