Introduction
The trees we find in the square are the banana trees. The same neighbors asked the City Council for permission to plant bananas in 1874. With the municipal initiative the square was improved in 1909 and bananas were planted again. Currently there are centenarians, although some of them have been replaced over the years.
They were planted in a geometric distribution framing the squareplaza and its interior in a plantation space that offers good shadows.shading. They have an extended formation of umbrellas, and in the pastpast, they had come to cover the entire plazaPlaça like a large umbrella.
Currently there are some that are no longer there, others have been replaced, in parfirstlyt due to their natural physiological state of aging, and also due to weakening, since they are in an urban environment with high mechanical compaction of the soil, with various labor works in their surroundings over the years and with a subsoil that does not quite have the ideal conditions for its optimal development. It should also be considered that in periods prior to the return of the democratic municipalities they had come to prune intensely in an abusive and unnecessary way, which produced wounds on the floor that did not close and remained open. This facilitated the penetration of water from the rains and humidity with insects and fungi of the wood that caused its internal decomposition progressively. Over the years, cavities were formed that severely damaged the wood and weakened the branches, which sometimes could not support the weight of its crown top crown and ended up falling. This process damaged the tree in general, shortened its vitality, causing it to die before its time or having to cut and replace them, as it’s happening with some of them.
The City Council has carried out continuous monitoring and treatments together with the Generalitat deof Cataluonyia to keep them in the best possible conditions. Taking into account their evolution, the City Council has launched a progressive restoration and replacement plan for these trees, enhancing the extended, proportional and balanced shape of their canopies and preserving the identity of this space with a marked Mediterranean characterlook.
Outside the cities we often find them associated with riverside environments. Its rapid growth makes it very productive. Mainly they make paper pulp, wooden boxes for fruit and sticks, handles for tools, but currently their wood is not exploited much.