The plant displays good vegetative vigour even though the trunk is completely hollow from the base. Currently, the tree is structured in five primary branches which, thanks to good spatial distribution, form a sufficiently balanced canopy. Consolidation work has been carried out to ensure the stability of the tree due to the weight and stress exerted by the branches when they are attached to the large hollow trunk.
According to a legend recorded by the writer Albert Schott in 1842, the Macugnaga Linden Tree was introduced from a seed brought from the Valais in the second half of the 13th century by a woman who was among the first Walser shepherds who founded the village. It is hard, however, to establish its exact age. Ancient notarial documents refer alternately to a linden tree and an elm tree. Some historians claim that, in place of today's Linden tree, there was originally an Elm tree, which has now disappeared. Since the nineteenth century, however, reliable iconographic and descriptive documents confirm its existence and, above all, its majesty. In 1999, a scientific commission from the University of Turin, while acknowledging that it was impossible to date the plant, credited it with an age that could be around 500 years.
