This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Platanus orientalis L.

The tree is 10 meters tall and its circumference is of about 2.20 metres.
It belongs to the Platanaceae family and it is a native plant of Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia, till Afghanistan.
The cortex is thin and light and the specimens, which are a pair of years old, present scales which reveal the green coloration ling underneath the surface. The trunk presents protuberances called “blastomanie”, which means masses of gems provoked by physiological alterations.
In Southern Italy they are spontaneous. Since the seventies, plane trees are threatened by a fungus pathology called “canker stain” against which have been effected regional interventions.
The plane tree of Carpinello, called by the locals “La Quercia”, was part of a forest of magnolias and cider trees, which has been cut down to get wood provisions.
It is told that Anita Garibaldi rested under the shadows of this tree some days before her death. It seems also that after the Second World War, a part of the tree was struck by a lightning but that the fire extinguished immediately.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)