Plane tree
Original title: Plátano
The plane tree grown in Madeira, identified by the Elucidário as Platanus orientalis; the entry describes the tree, its timber and where it thrives.
The plane tree cultivated in Madeira is Platanus orientalis, and not P. occidentalis, as all the botanists who have studied our flora have wrongly stated. It is a tree that can reach 35 metres in height, with monoecious flowers, the staminate and pistillate ones on separate branches and gathered into globular heads. Plane wood is light-coloured and wavy-grained; when well seasoned it is excellently suited to cabinet-making. We are not aware that the eye irritations mentioned by some authors, caused by the hairs of young plane leaves, have been observed in Madeira.
The plane tree thrives not only in Funchal and its surroundings, where it already grew at the end of the 17th century, but also in the ravines of the interior. High in the mountains, however, it grows poorly, apparently suffering from the strong winds that frequently blow there.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 01
- Funchal
The plane tree thrives in Funchal and its outskirts, where it existed by the late 17th century.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.