Hêtre de Ponthus, Remarkable beech tree in Paimpont forest, France.

The Hêtre de Ponthus was a large common beech in the forest of Paimpont, Brittany, with a circumference of 4.1 metres and many tentacular branches. Its thick, irregular trunk divided low into massive limbs, and its mottled grey-green bark showed darker patches and exposed wood. It stood among tall, slender trunks, near the path to the Fontaine de Barenton.

The Hêtre de Ponthus was a common beech (not a red beech) in the forest of Paimpont, estimated at about 300 years old, so it took root around the early 18th century. Its legend, however, places it at the ruins of Ponthus's castle, destroyed by Bertrand du Guesclin's troops in 1372. The storm Ciarán felled it on the night of 1–2 November 2023.

The Hêtre de Ponthus takes its name from a knight in a medieval Breton legend, giving it a place in local memory beyond its age or size. The forest of Paimpont has long been linked to Arthurian tales, and this tree stood as a tangible point of connection for visitors drawn to those stories.

The tree fell in November 2023, so the site is now a memorial point in the forest rather than a living tree. Visitors to the Paimpont forest can ask at the local tourist office for directions to the spot and for information about the marked trails in the area.

The tree's name comes from the Roman de Ponthus, a medieval romance commissioned by the Laval family in the early 15th century to give Paimpont a heroic founder. The ruins of the so-called "château de Ponthus" lie at the foot of the tree, and Paimpont named an avenue after the knight in 1994.