The horse chestnut tree, although 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 27 meters tall.

(A. Murray bis) Parl.
(Cyprès de Lawson)
This American conifer has here kept its natural bearing and forms a large conical tree with drooping branches.The rooting process can be used with the low branches of old specimens like this one.

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

D. Don (Cryptomeria du Japon)
In Western China specimens of this conifer almost 2,000 years old can be found. Their huge straight trunk reminds one somewhat of 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 lovely white dangling bracts which give it its common names.

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

The ginkgo is the last remaining representative of a family which abounded on earth 200 million years ago. The male specimen in Prafrance is probably the finest and largest in
France, with a height of 32 meters and a 5.2 meter circumference.

This magnolia, which came from the South East of the United States, has two indisputable strong points : its glossy dark green leaves and its white flowers, measuring about twenty cm. wide, which give off a soft lemony fragrance. This one has grown to the remarkable height of 26 meters

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

Prafance has one of continental Europe’s largest specimens (21 meters)of this oak, with tough, evergreen leaves ; it is very common in southern China but rarely grown in our arboreta

This is our native oak. Another species as straight as a die. (Quercus robur‘Fastigiata’), not grown frequently, measured 32 meters in 2002.

This one is almost 31 meters tall. Bald cypresses grow in 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 to 2,000 – and its slow growth rate.

It is common for this conifer to grow up to 50 meters in forests on the West Coast of the United States,where it keeps company with sequoias. In this site, it has reached the height of 25 meters.