The Ombu of Via Manzoni

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.