On 1 March 2021 somebody took a large knife to this tamarind's roots and tried to kill it. Nine months later the state of Piauí made it a heritage site. The tree survived the attack. The state environmental agency, Semar, and the police investigated it as an environmental crime, and on 23 December 2021 the state legislature passed Law 7.688, declaring the tree Historic and Environmental Heritage. The law bans pruning it, mutilating it, removing it, felling it, or disturbing the ground around it, which is exactly where the knife went in. What people come for is the crown. The onshore wind that blows constantly along this coast has pushed all of it hard to one side, like hair combed in a single stroke, which is where the name comes from: Árvore Penteada, the combed tree. A local legend, told by the writer Tharlliton Silva, explains it differently: a woman called Francisca Penteada, turned into a tree by jealous rivals. That is folklore, and the wind is the better story anyway. Residents put its age at over 70 years, and nobody has published anything more exact, nor a measurement of the trunk. If you have one, tell us. It stands within 250 metres of the PI-116 coastal highway near the turning for Praia do Arrombado and Carnaubinha, a roadside stop that gained basic visitor facilities after the listing. It was still drawing visitors in 2023. There is no bus; come by car or moto-taxi from Luís Correia or Parnaíba.
Beside the PI-116 highway, near the entrance to Praia do Arrombado/Praia de Carnaubinha and Maramar beach, Luís Correia, Piauí, Brazil You can recognise it by the crown, a tamarind's whole canopy swept hard to one side by the wind. It stands within 250 metres of the PI-116 near the Praia do Arrombado and Carnaubinha turning, at the roadside visitor stop.
Free. Stands beside the PI-116 coastal highway, less than 250 m from it, near the entrance to Praia do Arrombado/Carnaubinha and Maramar beach; a roadside stop with basic visitor infrastructure added after its 2021 heritage listing. Protected by Piauí state law 7.688 of 23 December 2021, which bans pruning, mutilating, removing, felling or otherwise disturbing the tree or the ground around it.
No public transport line; reached by car or moto-taxi along PI-116 from Luís Correia town or from Parnaíba