The horse chestnut tree, called “Indian chestnut tree” in French, does not come from India, but from the mountains of the south-east Balkans. It has been naturalised in this country for a long time. At Prafrance it grows to a height of 27 metres.

(A. Murray bis) Parl.
(Cyprès de Lawson)
This American conifer has kept its natural habit and forms a large conical tree with drooping branches. The lower branches of old trees like this one form layers.

(Sieb. et Zucc.) Endl. ‘CRIPPSII‘
The Hinoki cypress is one of the trees most often used for building palaces and Shintoist temples in Japan. The very fine specimen at La Bambouseraie is 23 metres tall.

D. Don (Cryptomeria du Japon)
In Western China Specimens that are almost 2,000 years old can be found. Their huge straight trunk resembles that of the giant sequoias.

Armand David, a missionary and naturalist, discovered this very fine tree in the
Chinese province of Sichuan in 1869. It produces small inflorescences surrounded by beautiful white dangling bracts which give it its common name.

This is the beech that can be  found in our forests and is one of the most decorative trees grown in parks.

The ginkgo is the last remaining representative of a family that was plentiful on earth 200 million years ago. The male specimen at La Bambouseraie is probably the finest and largest in France, with a height of 32 metres and a 5.2 metre circumference.

This magnolia which came from the South East United States, has two indisputable strong points; its glossy dark green leaves and its white flowers which about twenty cm. wide and which give off a light, lemony fragrance. The specimen at La bambouseraie has grown to the remarkable height of 26 metres.

Hu et Cheng
(Sequoia from China)
This is related botainically to the American sequoia, but, contrary to its distant relative, it drops its leaves at the end of autumn, like a larch.

La Bambouseraie has one of continental Europe’s largest specimens (21 metres)of this oak, with rough, evergreen leaves ; it is very common in southern China but rarely grown in our arboretums here in France.

This is our native oak with a very straight stature (Quercus robur‘Fastigiata’), not grown frequently it measured 32 metres in 2002.

Its height measures nearly 31 meters. Bald cypresses grow in the Florida glades and Louisiana bayous. T. DISTICHUM (L.) Rich.var. IMBRICARIUM can be differentiated from the typical form by its small upward-pointing branches against which grow scaly leaves. T. DISTICHUM (L.)Richard var. MEXICANUM Gordon (T.mucronatum Ten) (Montezuma cypress)is a Mexican and Guatemalan variant which can be distinguished by its semi-persistent foliage.

The yew, which makes up part of typically lower mountain vegetation, is one of our most venerable trees because of its longevity – it can easily live up to 2,000 years  also beacause of its slow growth rate.

It is common for this conifer to grow up to 50 metres in forests on the West Coast of the United States,where it grows alongside sequoias. Here it has reached the height of 25 metres.