The weather in November was so mild that it fooled Geneva’s chestnut trees into thinking spring had come again.
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The trees on the Treille promenade by the old city, including the “official chestnut” have put out leaves for the second time this year, the city council official charged with monitoring the tree said on Wednesday.
Every year since 1818 the appearance of the first leaves on the official chestnut has been used to decide officially that spring has begun.
Over that time, the date has varied considerably. The latest recorded date was late April. The spring of 2003 was the first to be decreed before the year had even started, in December 2002.
In 2006 the tree produced a second lot of blossom in October, the first time such a phenomenon had been seen.
In 2011 the first leaves came out at the end of February.
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Michel Brunner, a graphic artist and author of “Giant Trees of Switzerland”, has been measuring and photographing giant trees in Europe for more than ten years. He has listed more than 2,000 trees, of which more than 1,000 are in Switzerland. (Photos: Michel Brunner and André Hübscher; selected by Rolf Amiet, swissinfo.ch)
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.