The Granit oak (in ) is a pedunculate oak (''Quercus robur'') tree that grows within the boundaries of Granit village,

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The oak measures in diameter and in girth at waist level and reaches in height, but only eastern side branches remain alive. In March 1982 samples were taken with a pressler drill, from which it was estimated that the tree was 1637 years old. With an estimated

germination Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, ...

date of 345 AD, it is the oldest tree in Bulgaria and one of the oldest in Europe. In 1967 the Granit oak was declared a protected tree and included in the list of the

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance. They can be natural geological and geographical features such as w ...

s of Bulgaria. In 2010 the oak was featured prominently in a documentary ''Live Eternity'' (in ).Vanyo Stoilov, ''The Oldest Tree in Europe is Slowly Dying -Rado-'', 24 ''Chassa Daily'', 20 November 2011. (In Bulgarian)

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Gallery

File:Granit Oak Bulgaria.JPG, The Granit oak in August 2011 File:Granit Oak Bulgaria 02.JPG, The Granit oak File:Granit Oak Bulgaria 06.JPG, The Granit oak File:Granit Oak Bulgaria 09.JPG, The Granit oak {{DEFAULTSORT:Granit oak Individual oak trees Stara Zagora Province Individual trees in Bulgaria

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References

Gallery