Burnt Sa Tanca Manna, Cuglieri’s millennial olive tree.
Burnt Sa Tanca Manna, Cuglieri’s millennial olive tree.
The fires that are devouring Sardinia have burned Sa Tanca Manna, the millenary olive tree of Cuglieri.
The tree was an olive tree (Olea europaea oleaster), that is, a wild olive tree. It had a shaft of about 10 meters in circumference and was 16 and a half meters high. It was known as the Tanca Manna olive tree, from the name of the locality near Cuglieri where it was located, and was registered in the List of Monumental Trees of Italy of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies. He was considered a plant patriarch, a rare example of botanical archeology.
Image by Marta Ecca
“So even the millennial olive tree goes up in smoke and ashes”, writes Maria Giovanna Campus, archaeologist and former regional manager, very attached to her country Cuglieri. “This morning the trunk of our patriarch was still burning and, as you approached, you could hear the crackle of the fire in the trunk and see the smoke rising and being blown away by the wind. The air smelled of death and even the colors were the colors of death: the death of a righteous one who dispensed shadow and pure wisdom to the many who stood under his foliage “concludes Campus.
Source: Teatro Naturale – read the original article
