Columbus's Ombu Tree From Indies Flourishes at La Cartuja in Seville

Summary: La Cartuja in Seville, Spain, agrees with Columbus’s ombu tree, arriving as an adoptee, ancestored by mainland South American specimens, from the Indies.

Phytolacca dioica tree, known popularly as ombú, from the Indies reputedly planted by Christopher Columbus at Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas, also known as La Cartuja, in Seville, Andalusia, southwestern Spain, according to Castellano-Manchego Spanish priest and documentary researcher Baltasar Cuartero y Huerta ("Los Colón en la Cartuja," Boletín de la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras, vol. 16 [1988], p. 68); Colombus statue erected in 1887 by María Josefa Pickman y Martínez de la Vega, Dowager Marchioness of Pickman, is visible to left of ombú's trunk (center); Sunday, March 15, 2009, 12:21: Anual, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

The dry, sunny climate at La Cartuja in Seville, Spain, agrees with Columbus’s ombu tree, arriving as an adoptee, ancestored by dry, sunny mainland South American specimens, from the moist, sunny Indies.

Columbus’s ombu tree bears a Guarani word, ombú, as common name because of red dye and by its biogeography bound with central, central-east Guarani cultural birthplaces. Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan cultures connect boundary-communicating, shade-conferring, shelter-conveying ombu with gaucho (from Runasimi wahcha, “vagabond” via Portuguese gaúcho and Spanish gaucho, “cowboy”) plainsmen. The pampa (from Runasimi pampa, “plain” via Portuguese and Spanish pampa) denizen dwells in dry, grassy, open, sunny meadows in all 13 mainland South American countries.

The Phytolaccaceae (from Greek φυτόν, “plant”; Sanskrit लाक्षा, “[red-dye] lacquer” via Latin lacca, Arabic لَكّ, Persian لاک, Hindi लाख; Latin -āceae, “resembling”) family member endures frost.

The Caryophyllales (from Greek κάρυον, “nut” and φύλλον, “leaf” via Latin caryophyllus, “clove-like” and -ālis, “of”) order’s pokeweed-family member grows from germinated seeds or rooted cuttings.

Black-gray, hard, shiny seeds germinate in clayey to loamy to sandy, semi-shaded to sunny soils that guard semi-acidic to neutral soil pHs between 6.5 and 7.0. Only birds handle toxic ombu berries, and help spread their seeds, of the two germinating seed-leafed eudicot, fruiting-seeded angiosperm and mineral-, photosynthate-, water-tissued tracheophyte clade member. Phytolacca dioica (from Greek δίς, “twice” and οἶκος, “house” via Latin dioica), identified by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), includes black, crimson, yellow berries.

Seville’s monthly average minimal temperature below 42 degrees Fahrenheit (5.8 degrees Celsius) and average maximum precipitation above 3.9 inches (100 millimeters) never jeopardize Colombus's ombu tree.

Ombu trees, naturally taller than they are wide, appear tree-like to some aficionadas (from same-spelled Spanish, “[female] admirers”) and aficionados (from same-spelled Spanish, “[male] admirers”), tree-looking to others and as bushy, shrubby, treey woody plants to still others. They are ancestored by herbaceous (from Latin herba, “grass, vegetation” and -āceus, “resembling” via Latin herbāceus), non-woody plants. And yet they assume abnormal, anomalous, secondarily-thickened roots and abnormal, anomalous, secondarily-thickened, trunk-like stems. Cork cambium and vascular cambium, as the two lateral (from Latin latus, “side” and -ālis, “of, pertaining to” via laterālis) meristems (cell-dividable tissue from which arise all plant organs and tissues, from Greek μεριστός, “divided” and στέμμα, “garland, wreath”), assure parallel-rowed cells between nutrient- and water-transporting xylem (from Greek ξύλον, “wood”) and photosynthate-transporting phloem (from Greek φλόος, “bark, husk, peel, rind, skin” via German Phloëm). Cell divisions at root and stem tips and in lateral meristems respectively attain elongated roots and stems for primary-growth tissue and thickened roots and stems for secondary-growth tissue. Abnormal, anomalous secondary growth awards ombu trees with augmented root and trunk widths even as it avoids adding additional phloem and xylem, whose absence accounts for spongey tissue therefore not at all termed as true wood; Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, 15:41:57, image of Columbus-gifted bushy ombú (center) at Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas, Seville, southwestern Spain: CarlosVdeHabsburgo, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Clustered, 7- to 11- lobed, 7- to 11-seeded, 0.39- to 0.47-inch (10- to 12-millimeter) diameter berries kindle downward-hanging branches that previously knew carpeled and staminate flowers.

The same branches lodge long, low-hanging, summer- through autumn-clustered inflorescences (flower cluster, from Latin flōs via Latin inflōrēscentia [“inflorescence”], inflōrēscō [“I begin flowering”], flōrēscō [“I flower”]). Sepal-maintaining calyxes (from Greek κάλυξ, “husk”) maintain 7 to 10 female-flowered, stigma-topped, style-tubed, ovary-based carpels and 10 staminodes, or 20 to 30 male-flowered, anther-topped, filament-bottomed stamens. Five green sepals niched in maximally 5.91-inch- (15-centimeter-) long branch-end catkins (from Dutch catkin, “catlike, kitten”) net pollen-producing stamens (from Latin stāmen, “thread”), not non-pollen-producing staminodes.

Soft-wooded, spongy, strong, water-sequestering morphology (from Greek μορφή, “form” and -λογία, “account, explanation, narrative” via Latin -logia) occasions Columbus’s ombu tree obtaining longevity outside native occurrences.

Ombu trees possess the respectively Portuguese and Spanish names belombra and bela sombra and bella sombra and belhammbra for the “beautiful shade” of powerful, prolific branches.

Brown to brown-white rough-barked, maximally 22.97-foot- (7-meter-) thick bases and trunks respectively quarter buttressed, non-elongated, thickened, water-queuing roots and leaf-filled, multi-branched, non-elongated, round-canopied, thickened, umbrella-crowned stems. Alternate-occurring, elliptic to oval, smooth-surfaced, terminal-whorled, 2.76- to 5.91-inch (7- to 15-centimeter) long, 1.97- to 2.95-inch (5- to 7.5-centimeter) wide leaves reveal simple, unscalloped, untoothed margins. Evergreen, lustrous foliage somewhat bent and curved backward shelters black-green upper and green-white lower surfaces; 3.15-inch- (8-centimeter-) long red-tinged stalks; red-tinged, top-tipped midribs; and white-edged margins.

La Cartuja in Seville, Spain, treasures Columbus’s ombu tree as a truculent species whose most tremendous types elsewhere tender 40- to 60-foot (12- to 18-meter) habits.

Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus's 1762 description of Phytolacca dioica noted the evergreen tree's perfectly bushy stem ("Caulis perfecte fruticoſus"; Species Plantarum, Tomo I, Editio seconda, page 632); ombú (Phytolacca dioica) flourishes over five centuries after the specimen's retrieval from Indies and reported planting by late 15th century to early 16th century explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus; Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas (El Monasterio de Santa María de las Cuevas) in Seville, Andalusia, southwestern Spain; Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, 15:42:30: CarlosVdeHabsburgo, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Phytolacca dioica tree, known popularly as ombú, from the Indies reputedly planted by Christopher Columbus at Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas, also known as La Cartuja, in Seville, Andalusia, southwestern Spain, according to Castellano-Manchego Spanish priest and documentary researcher Baltasar Cuartero y Huerta ("Los Colón en la Cartuja," Boletín de la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras, vol. 16 [1988], p. 68); Colombus statue erected in 1887 by María Josefa Pickman y Martínez de la Vega, Dowager Marchioness of Pickman, is visible to left of ombú's trunk (center); Sunday, March 15, 2009, 12:21: Anual, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ombú_Cartuja_001.jpg

Ombu trees, naturally taller than they are wide, appear tree-like to some aficionadas (from same-spelled Spanish, “[female] admirers”) and aficionados (from same-spelled Spanish, “[male] admirers”), tree-looking to others and as bushy, shrubby, treey woody plants to still others. They are ancestored by herbaceous (from Latin herba, “grass, vegetation” and -āceus, “resembling” via Latin herbāceus), non-woody plants. And yet they assume abnormal, anomalous, secondarily-thickened roots and abnormal, anomalous, secondarily-thickened, trunk-like stems. Cork cambium and vascular cambium, as the two lateral (from Latin latus, “side” and -ālis, “of, pertaining to” via laterālis) meristems (cell-dividable tissue from which arise all plant organs and tissues, from Greek μεριστός, “divided” and στέμμα, “garland, wreath”), assure parallel-rowed cells between nutrient- and water-transporting xylem (from Greek ξύλον, “wood”) and photosynthate-transporting phloem (from Greek φλόος, “bark, husk, peel, rind, skin” via German Phloëm). Cell divisions at root and stem tips and in lateral meristems respectively attain elongated roots and stems for primary-growth tissue and thickened roots and stems for secondary-growth tissue. Abnormal, anomalous secondary growth awards ombu trees with augmented root and trunk widths even as it avoids adding additional phloem and xylem, whose absence accounts for spongey tissue therefore not at all termed as true wood; Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, 15:41:57, image of Columbus-gifted bushy ombú (center) at Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas, Seville, southwestern Spain: CarlosVdeHabsburgo, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ombú_Colón.jpg

Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus's 1762 description of Phytolacca dioica noted the evergreen tree's perfectly bushy stem ("Caulis perfecte fruticoſus"; Species Plantarum, Tomo I, Editio seconda, page 632); ombú (Phytolacca dioica) flourishes over five centuries after the specimen's retrieval from Indies and reported planting by late 15th century to early 16th century explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus; Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Cuevas (El Monasterio de Santa María de las Cuevas) in Seville, Andalusia, southwestern Spain; Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, 15:42:30: CarlosVdeHabsburgo, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ombú_de_Colón.jpg

For further information:

"Bela-Sombra, Ombu, Ombú-Elephant-Tree - (Phytolacca dioica L.)." Meu Cantinho Verde > Árvores Ornamentais > 16 October 2017.
Available @ https://www.meucantinhoverde.com/2017/10/bela-sombra-ombu-ombu-elephant-tree.html

"Belombra." Jardin Secrets > Arbres, arbres fruitiers et arbustes.
Available @ https://jardin-secrets.com/belombra.html

Collectivité de Corse. "30. Belhambra Phytolacca dioica." giardini.corsica > Home > Menu > The species > Discover the various species > Species > Trees > Belhambra Phytolacca arborea > 30.
Available @ https://www.giardini.corsica/en/the-species/belhambra/

FavThemes. "Phytolacca Dioica Or Ombu Tree / Care and Growing." ConsultaPlantas > Plants M to R.
Available @ http://www.consultaplantas.com/index.php/en/plants-from-m-to-r/2877-phytolacca-dioica-or-ombu-tree-care-and-growing

Glority LLC Limited. "Ombú." PictureThis.
Available @ https://www.picturethisai.com/wiki/Phytolacca_dioica.html

Harden, G. J. 1999. "Phytolacca dioica L." PlantNET (The NSW Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0) > New South Wales Flora Online.
Available @ https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Phytolacca~dioica

Hewson, H. J. "Phytolacca dioica L." In A.S. George (Ed.). 1984. "Phytolaccaceae." Flora of Australia 4:1-5. Canberra, Australia: Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, the Environment and Water. Edited by John R. Busby January 2022. Last updated 20 July 2022.
Available @ https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Phytolacca%20dioica

Linnæi, Caroli. 1762. "4. Phytolacca floribus dioicis. Habitat in Alstroemer ex horto Madritensi. Caulis perfecte fruticoſus. Folia exacte ovata, glabra, magnitudine Populi nigræ, longius petiolata. Flores ut in reliquis, ſed dioici." ("Phytolacca dioecious flowers. Habitat in Alstroemer from the garden of Madrid. The stem is perfectly bushy. The leaves are exactly ovate, glabrous, the size of the Black Poplar, longer petiolate. Flowers as in the rest, but divided.") Page 632. Species Plantarum, Exhibentes Plantas Rite Cognitas, Ad Genera Relatas, Cum Differentiis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus, Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, Secundum Systema Sexuale Digestas. Tomus I. Editio Secunda. Holmiæ [Stockholm, Sweden]: Impensis Direct. Laurentii Salvii.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11629086

Missouri Botanical Garden. 2022. "Phytolacca dioica L." Tropicos > Name Search.
Available @ http://legacy.tropicos.org/Name/24800084

"Ombú Phytolacca dioica." Candide > Search ZA Gardens.
Available @ https://candide.com/ZA/plants/68d23651-205a-4ddc-8afb-04a70859a228

Orwa, C.; A. Mutua; R. Kindt; R. Jamnadass; and A. Simons. 2009. "Phytolacca dioica umbú, packalacca, ombú." Agroforestree Database: a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0.
Available @ http://apps.worldagroforestry.org/treedb2/AFTPDFS/Phytolacca_dioica.PDF

"Phytolacca dioica." TopTropicals > Quick Link > Plant finder > Tropical Plant Encyclopedia and Plant ID > A-Z Complete Alphabetical List of plants in Catalog > Phytolacca dioica (Pokeweed, Belhambra, Bella Ombre, Ombu, Umbo, Umbra tree, Elephant tree, Fitolaca, Beautiful shade, Family: Phytolaccaceae.
Available @ https://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/phytolacca_dioica.htm

"Phytolacca dioica Elephant Tree, Ombú." RarePalmSeeds.
Available @ https://www.rarepalmseeds.com/phytolacca-dioica

"Phytolacca dioica L." LLIFLE > Encyclopedias of living forms > The Encyclopedia of Succulents > Family > Phytolaccaceae > Phytolacca > Phytolacca dioica. Text available under a CC-BY-SA Creative Commons Attribution License. www.llifle.com 14 Nov. 2005. Copyright 2013-2022.
Available @ http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/SUCCULENTS/Family/Phytolaccaceae/19661/Phytolacca_dioica

Space, Jim. (Ed.) "Phytolacca dioica Risk Assessment Results: High risk, score:9." Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER). Page created 29 February 2008.
Available @ http://www.hear.org/pier/wra/pacific/phytolacca_dioica_htmlwra.htm

Science & Technology Inst., Co. 2022. "Ombu Phytolacca dioica." Flower Database > Flowers > Search Enter flower name.
Available @ https://www.flower-db.com/en/flowers/phytolacca-dioica

SelecTree. UFEI. "Phytolacca dioica Tree Record." 1995-2022. CalPoly > UFEI > Tree Information & Resources > SelecTree > Enter a tree name. San Luis Obispo CA: Urban Forest Ecosystems Insitute at Cal Poly, California Polytechnic State University.
Available @ https://selectree.calpoly.edu/tree-detail/1558

Seth S. 2002. "Ombu." Blue Planet Biomes > World Biomes > Grasslands > Plants. Copyright Brynn Schaffner 2020.
Available @ https://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/ombu.php

WFO. 2022. "Phytolacca dioica L." The World Flora Online > Taxon > wfo-0000482088.
Available @ http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000482088