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I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

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A tree that was lost and came back across the water.

The Tree Comes Home

A tree that was lost and came back across the water.

Card 27 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

A young tree hung with nuts stands upright in a small rowing boat, its roots trailing in the water, as it reaches a green bank where people stand waiting. It is the Turkish hazel, which Clusius brought to the Low Countries after receiving its first seeds from Istanbul in 1582 2. In Leiden the tree was lost; one was planted in the Singelpark's Huigpark in March 2025, and in the spring of 2026 a specimen arrives from Turkey for the Hortus, the work of the Turks Archief, the Hortus and the Singelpark together 1. Not painted, but the same reaching out: a second green ring is being worked on to link the Singelpark with the outer districts 3.

What it draws on · 3

Hortus Botanicus Leiden

de terugkeer van de hazelaar

In Leiden the tree was lost. After a Turkish hazel was planted in the Singelpark's Huigpark in March 2025, an effort began to bring the species back to the Hortus as well: in the spring of 2026 a specimen arrives from Turkey. It will not stand in the Clusius garden but along the Witte Singel, because the tree needs a great deal of water and would grow too large for the historic garden design. The Turks Archief, the Hortus and the Singelpark worked on it together.

Sources · 2
  • Sleutelstad — 'Turkse Hazelaar maakt rentree in Hortus botanicus Leiden' (5 november 2025)
  • Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
Hortus Botanicus Leiden

de Turkse hazelaar

The Turkish hazel (Corylus colurna) came by the same route. In 1582 Clusius received the first seeds from Istanbul while in Vienna, and brought the species to the Low Countries. The oldest Turkish hazel still living in the country has stood in the Amsterdam Hortus since 1795.

Sources · 3
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Nederlandse Vereniging van Botanische Tuinen — Boomhazelaar / Turkse hazelaar (Corylus colurna)
  • Monumental Trees — Turkse hazelaar, Hortus Botanicus UvA Amsterdam (1795)
Singelpark

een tweede groene ring

The ring embraces the old centre, but the districts beyond it still lie apart from it. So a second green ring is being worked on, meant to link the Singelpark with the outer neighbourhoods and with green space such as the Leidse Hout and Polderpark Cronesteyn, by way of 'green spokes' between the two rings.

Sources · 2
  • Gemeente Leiden — 'Gooimeerlaan-Singelpark: ecologische verbinding' (2024)
  • Gemeente Leiden — projecten: Singelpark, tweede groene ring en groene spaken

Shares its places with · 7

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

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