The Ombu of the Orto Botanico

The ombu is not built like a tree. Phytolacca dioica is a pachycaul, a plant that puts its bulk into a broad soft water-holding stem instead of into hard timber, which is how a South American relative of pokeweed ends up thickening at the base in a way no timber tree does. Cagliari's grows along the main avenue of the botanical garden, past the bald cypresses and short of the Pampanini fountain, which is where the garden's own visitor route places it. Both the Italian parks and gardens association and the Italian Botanical Heritage survey list it among the garden's significant specimens, which is good company for a species most visitors would walk past without a second look. Its age comes from the garden's own account, which says the notable trees are the oldest on the ground because they were planted during the founding phase, and names the Phytolacca dioica among them. The garden opened on 15 November 1866, so the ombu is up to about 160 years old, give or take however long that first planting ran on. What nobody has published is a girth, and on a trunk of this shape that is the measurement worth having. If you have stood beside it with a tape, tell us.