An ombu on a Posillipo street corner has one of the widest trunks of any tree in Naples, 6.27 metres round, and almost none of that girth is wood. Phytolacca dioica is technically an oversized herb rather than a tree, its base swollen with water storing tissue instead of true timber, which is why it can reach this circumference while standing only 10 metres tall. The species comes from the Argentine and Uruguayan pampas, imported across the Mediterranean in the 19th century as a curiosity that thrives wherever winters stay above freezing. This one has stood on Via Manzoni long enough to be nominated repeatedly to FAI's Places of the Heart campaign, in years spanning 2006 to 2022, an unusually long streak of local affection for a tree most guidebooks skip entirely. No growth rings exist to date it by, since the wood is too soft and spongy to hold them, so the register's own estimate, over a century, is as precise as anyone can get. It stands directly on the public street, no gate and no ticket, one entry on a five kilometre road that is otherwise mostly known for its views over the bay.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Via Alessandro Manzoni 246, Posillipo, 80123 NapoliYou can recognise it by a trunk 6.27 metres round on a tree only 10 metres tall, technically an oversized herb rather than true wood. It stands directly on the street at Via Alessandro Manzoni 246, Posillipo, no gate.
Free, stands directly on a public street, no gate
Posillipo neighbourhood; reachable by bus along Via Manzoni
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia
- MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia (Italy's national register of monumental trees) (Naples register entry, girth 627cm, height 10m)
- fondoambiente.it
