Which top tree will you root for?
A WEEPING willow grown from a cutting taken from Napoleon Bonaparte’s grave is among contenders to be Scotland’s Tree of the Year.
The Woodland Trust competition celebrates the country’s best-loved trees, from historic giants to those with a local story to tell.
Following public nominations, the six finalists were shortlisted for a vote, which opens today.
Among the favourites is Napoleon’s tree, planted in Dumfriesshire by Army surgeon Dr Archibald Arnott.
He befriended the French leader on the island of St Helena and after his death Napolean was buried under a favourite willow tree. Dr Arnott took a cutting and planted it in the garden of his home, which is now the Kirkconnel Hall Hotel.
The willow is up against five other trees, including the filo-pastry tree, a Polylepis australis in
‘A cutting from Napoleon’s grave’
Stranraer, Wigtownshire, which got its name after a pupil compared its bark to a spring roll.
The Camperdown elm is a mutant weeping elm found near Dundee in 1835, and is the source of all other such elms in the world. The 100ft Flodden tree, on the Hirsel Estate near Coldstream, Berwickshire, is thought to have been planted to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1513 battle between the Scots and the English.
Malloch’s Oak at Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, is said to have been used to hang a miller who hoarded flour and grain during a famine.
The last tree in the running is Netty’s tree, a spruce on Eriskay planted more than 100 years ago by activist Father Allan MacDonald, which was until recently the only tree on the island.