The Ombues Mount
The ecological reserve “Monte de los Ombués” is one of the natural places more astonishing that our city has. The Ombú -name that comes from the guaraní aboriginal language- is not a tree, it’s an enormous herb that grows in an isolated way in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and in the south of Brasil, but not in a thicket way like in this mount in Victoria.
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The Ombú trunk is very wide and soft, that conserve the water. In it are alternated wood layers with soft layers. The diameter of it can reach three meters long, and the top of its dense foliage can get to 18 meters.
In spite of its great size, the ombú can’t be used in carpentry because its consistence is spongy, either as a heat source because it doesn’t burn.
The PHYTOLACA DIOCA, scientific denomination of the ombú, is characterized for its long life -perceptible in the hollow of the trunk- and its strength. It is ingrained by strong roots of large extension. The flowers make bunches, that are feminine in some ombúes and masculine in others. The fruits seem like small flatten tomatoes of green color, that change to yellow when they are maturated, and they have the seeds inside. The leafs are lengthened, and they are in the plant after the first frosts.
The ombú resists
In spite of that the Ombú has great qualities worthy of admiration, such as the beauty of its shade, the resistance against the drought (characteristics that were appreciated by environment specialists of different countries to take it to Spain, California and North Africa), has confronted in its own land times of implacable deforestation.
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In the last years, some agriculturists have eliminated hundreds of ombú, but not by a common farmer tradition that says that the ombú can bring badness and be a receiver of rays, just because this symbol of Argentina quit possibilities of farming. One Ombú occupies between 10 and 20 fertile square meters and becomes difficult the work of the agricultural machines.
But in opposition to that attitude, in the year 1999, school pupils of Victoria planted new ombúes in the ecological reserve. All an example to the adults.
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