In Reggio secular trees enrich the seafront and the town park. In the city of the Strait, a monumental garden on the seafront coexists in the very center of the city, a very ancient municipal villa and a Palmarium.
He talks about it Carmelo Maria Musarella, professor of plant biology at the Mediterranean Universityin a interview with RaiTre Calabriain the transmission Buongiorno Regione.
Ficus macrophylla subsp. columnaris it is one of the trees that most characterizes the “Italo Falcomatà” promenade of Reggio Calabria. It is a plant of Australian origin that many also know as magnolioid fig because it vaguely resembles the tree Magnolia grandiflora. It has a peculiarity: that of producing, like others Ficus, of the adventitious aerial roots that start from the branches and reach the ground, obviously within several tens of years, in order to be able to make its structure more robust, better supporting the weight of its long branches. This guarantees it to create a majestic effect, both with the roots that often emerge from the ground, and with those that create a sort of colonnade from the branches themselves.
Surely the plant dates back to the post-earthquake reconstruction of 1908; in reality every earthquake has seen a rebirth of this seafront, but the current structure, especially the one where the Ficus macrophylla, basically dates back to that era. Still others are the species that over time have managed to resist up to today and which are currently of a truly remarkable age. The “Italo Falcomatà” seafront can therefore be considered a monumental garden, because it is made up of botanical monuments: not only Ficus macrophyllabut also some pines and some palms, especially Canarian palms (phoenix canariensis), which are very large in size.
Taking a leap both in time and geographically, in the area now occupied by the installation of the master Tresoldi we find several trees of Phytolacca dioica. This, on the other hand, is a plant of South American origin which, unlike the previous one, instead of emitting roots which go downwards from the top in order to support the plant, emits suckers: that is, new stems branch off from the base which go towards tall and give a typical candelabrum appearance to this beautiful plant.
Also very interesting is the rich variety of palm trees that we find on the promenade, in particular the aforementioned Canary palms, but also various Washingtonias. And there is clearly no shortage of dwarf palms (Chamaerops humilis), the only palms, we can say, characteristic of the Mediterranean.