The Judas tree of Mélykút village won the contest this year with 5091 votes. The online voting had been running since July and ended in an exciting close finale. The trees of Balatonszemes-Bagolyvár received the title of the Hero Tree, while the special award of the National Forestry Association was given to the Oak of Déri Square in Debrecen. The winner tree became the property of the Grassalkovich family in 1750, who built a beautiful church in place of the chapel on the local hill. It was then that the Judas tree came to Mélykút, and was probably brought from Subotica by the Franciscan monks from Vojvodina and planted on the northern side of the newly built church in the 1760s and 70s. According to a legend, the flowers of the Judas tree symbolise the blood of Christ, and the flat seeds refer to Judas' money. It is a miracle that this Mediterranean species survived on the northern side of the church, exposed to the weather and cold, and is still flourishing to this day.
