“According to our measurements, the most voluminous specimen has a circumference of 7m23 and is approximately 30 meters high,” says Koen Seghers, head of the park. “It is ninth in the Belgian ranking of widest giant sequoias.” According to the experts from the Monumental Trees website, the tree, which is part of the group of five near the orangery, is not the real winner of Brussels. The Woluwe park has one with a circumference of 8.66 meters and a height of 33 meters. The widest giant sequoia in Belgium is located in the province of Liège, in the Domaine du Rond Chêne in Esneux, and it is also said to be the widest tree in Belgium tout court.
The giant sequoias in Laeken have been through a lot, even the foundation of Belgium. “They are estimated to be 250 to 300 years old,” says Seghers. “So they were planted long before the greenhouses were built and even before Belgium existed.”
Nothing is known about when and by whom they were planted. Perhaps they were planted by someone who was impressed by the giant sequoias in California, where the tree species originally comes from.
Giant sequoias can withstand quite a few storms. “Last November the park lost a number of trees during a heavy storm and that also happened during recent storms, but sequoias can take a beating. The group at the orangery is being closely monitored, because they could possibly cause a lot of damage to the greenhouses.”
Years ago, a redwood tree disappeared in Laeken, but the current population is very healthy, according to Seghers. They may have decades or hundreds of years ahead of them, or at best many more. “Researchers have determined that a certain sequoia tree lived to be about 3,200 years old.” Whether they might also see the end of it after the foundation of Belgium remains to be seen.
