Visit the Pinetum “Ter Borgh”

Going back in time is easy in Drenthe. Anloo has farms a few hundred years old, a church that is even older. There are burial mounds from 2500 years ago. The hunebed can easily reach 4000 years. The landscape itself is from the Ice Age.

Maar ouder wordt het niet, totdat u het Pinetum ‘TER BORGH’ binnen loopt. Daar staan coniferen waarvan diverse soorten dinosauriërs gezien en overleefd hebben. Niet één, maar verscheidene.

You probably know that one. The strangely stiff Apentreiter or Slangenden from the front yards in the new housing estates. A tree that resembles other trees so little that it could be an alien. Regularly in whorls of branches and with sharp triangular leaves. As a monkey you stay out of that. Feel how stiff and sharp those leaves are. Why? To protect against predators from dinosaurs. When the gigantic Argentinosaurus roamed South America, the Araucaria was already there. A tree that doesn’t get too hot underfoot. Also literally, it grows optimally on the lava fields of Chile.

A proverbial ‘living fossil’. For years, the tree was known only as a fossil until it was found in a remote valley in China in 1941. This only became known in the west after the Second World War. It was world news, fat headlines gave birth to a star. The Pond Cypress astonished the world. Even more astonishing is the fact that the tree originated in the Arctic 700 NB. And to think that in the time of the dinosaurs there was no permanent snow on the poles. The climate has really changed. It is also remarkable that this conifer loses its leaves and the buds are below the leaf scar.

Sciadopitys verticillata

The only surviving species of its family. The Spruce Spruce from South Japan therefore has no more relatives. Fossils from 200 million years ago have been found. That is well before the dinosaurs ruled the earth. The Wreath Spruce owes its name to the fact that the whorls are formed in their own way by two fused needles. It is not even certain that they are needles, perhaps they are also special stems. Another name is Parasols.

These are three trees from the pinetum. But there are many more, each with its own story. The pinetum is hidden in the woods and forms an oasis of tranquility

How to get there?

The route is signposted from the car park on Anderenseweg (between Anloo and Anderen). The route runs along the dolmen D11 and a picturesque fen. The walking distance is about 1 km. A guide can be requested for groups of 8 or more people. Contact us via mobile 06 248 63 741 or via info@pinetumanloo.nl