The Donnersmarck's yew in Kalety, Poland, Natural monument yew tree in Kalety, Poland.
The Donnersmarck's yew is a common yew in the forest of the Świerklaniec Forest District, within Kalety's administrative limits, about 3.5 km from the Jędrysek forestry office. It has a single, regularly cylindrical trunk 222 cm in girth and 16 m tall (2013), with a high-set conical crown. It is the thickest yew in Poland's State Forests.
The yew was first documented in 1906 by the German botanist Theodor Schube in his monograph "Waldbuch von Schlesien", which recorded a trunk circumference of 1.43 m and a height of 16 m. The forest owners, the Donnersmarck family, had foresters brace the tree against uprooting with a curved rail driven into the ground about 1.5 m from the trunk and a rope tie; traces of these supports survive. Formal protection came in 1930 on the initiative of the State Nature Conservation Council delegation in Katowice.
The yew appears in a folk song from the Upper Silesian region, cited in Bolesław Lubosz's 1969 book "Kraina gwarków i lasów" on the history and traditions of Biały Śląsk. The foresters of Świerklaniec still tend the tree, and a yew refuge with some 140 seedlings was planted beside it in 2002.
The yew grows in forest of the Świerklaniec Forest District, within Kalety's administrative limits, about 3.5 km from the Jędrysek forestry office. A curved rail once braced the root ball; it was removed around 2004 and lies near the trunk. The tree stands straight and needs no support, but dead wood shows on the southern side.
The tree's name honours the Donnersmarck family, owners of the Świerklaniec forests, who had a curved rail driven into the ground about 1.5 m from the trunk and a rope tie fixed to keep the yew from being uprooted. Traces of these supports survive; forester Marek Górecki removed the rail around 2004.
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