The Lonesome Pine: Hug a tree today

It might be difficult - you would think - to take a dislike to a tree. It might also be difficult to think that university researchers would spend their time (and presumably someone's money) in studying such a dislike. But if you happen to be Mallorcan or happen to be part of the education and citizenship department at the university in Palma, then it is less difficult to understand.

The poor old pine tree. It has lent its name to hotels - Sis Pins in Puerto Pollensa, Alcúdia Pins in not-Alcúdia, i.e. Playa de Muro; it gets chopped down, stripped, covered in soap, topped with a cock and climbed up during Pollensa's Sant Antoni fiesta; it was the subject of one of Mallorca's best-known poems - "El Pi de Formentor" (Costa i Llobera): sorry, Mallorca's only well-known poem.

You'd think, therefore, it was owed a bit more respect. Not so. It is "hated", suggests a piece from "The Diario", for being harmful to health, for causing (?) forest fires, for preventing anything else growing, for the processionary caterpillar and for being ... foreign. Ah yes, where were we on that Mallorcan xenophobia? It even extends to trees, though where this leaves attitudes towards palm trees (which with one minor exception are all non-native), one isn't quite sure. And they, palm trees, are similarly susceptible to destructive forces, as we now know with the palm beetle.

To what extent the pine is a true native of Mallorca is probably irrelevant. It has been around for that long that it has gone native. Two species - the aleppo and the stone - are certainly of Mediterranean origin; the stone from the mainland of Spain. This latter tree is the one which gives the edible pine nuts, popular both in local cuisine and as a "nibble".

The tree's function as a resource is only grudgingly acknowledged, despite the fact that it has been - and is - a prime source of wood. It proliferates to such an extent that it constitutes around 80% of mountainous forest. Yet some would like to see it eliminated, something which must cause conservationists and eco-warrior groups such as GOB to have fits and get out of their trees. Perhaps more than anything though, the pine is seen as being "dirty", a view with which one can have some sympathy. Get some strong winds and rain, and down come the needles in great abundance. They cover the streets and gardens and gather on top of drains to the extent that they prevent water flushing away, thus causing flooding; the town halls, in that they do spend taxpayers' money wisely on street-cleaning, are mainly engaged in being needled by pines and clearing the gutters.

The negative attitudes towards the pine are such that the university researchers are calling for an educative process to correct erroneous views and misapprehensions. We will all need to learn to love the pine, to hug** one daily. Until, that is, caterpillars fall onto our necks and sting us or the drains get blocked.


This is "El Pi de Formentor" set to music and sung by the Mallorcan, Maria del Mar Bonet:




** And "The Diario" did indeed show us how to hug a tree in its article. Go here:
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2010/04/07/mallorquines-odiamos-pinos/559537.html

QUIZ:
Yesterday - Ricky Martin, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfhT1OW7cUQ

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.