Arbol de Artigas: Heroic Tree of Uruguay

What's Blooming in Montevideo Now? Arbol de Artigas

If you see large dark green trees in the distance this month with a canopy of bright yellow flowers, chances are it's the Arbol de Artigas, named after Uruguay's national hero, General Jose Gervasio Artigas (1764-1850). Arbol de Artigas is the local nickname for Peltophorum dubium. Its common name is Ibirapita, or some variation of that, all around the region, including Argentina and Paraguay.

Arbol de Artigas in Montevideo Botanical Garden on 26/2/18
Photo by Cory Giacobbe

This regal tree can grow to 25 meters high. Its leaves are bipinnately compound, meaning that each leaf has up to 26 leaflets, and each leaflet has itself up to 26 leaflets.  That's a lot of tiny leaves on one leaf!  This photo shows just one leaf:

One leaf. Montevideo Botanical Garden on 26/2/18
Photo by Cory Giacobbe

Arbol de Artigas can sometimes look like a yellow-flowered version of the more common purple-flowered Jacaranda tree, but the leaves of the Arbol de Artigas are a darker green, and the leaves tend to have a slightly upturned posture, while the lighter green Jacaranda has leaves that hang down a little bit. If you hold out your hand, palm down, and lift your pinky and thumb, that's the Artigas leaf.  If you drop your pinky and thumb a bit, that's the shape of the Jacaranda leaf.

In summer, the canopy of the Arbol del Artigas is covered with panicles of delicate little yellow flowers. The fruit is a samariform legume, meaning that it is a wing-like floating pod. Each pod contains about three seeds.

Arbol de Artigas flowers.
Photo by Cory Giacobbe

How the tree came to be called Arbol de Artigas in Uruguay when it's Ibirapita in the rest of the Southern Cone is part history and part legend.  As the story goes, General Artigas exiled himself to Paraguay in 1820, after helping defeat the British, and then the Spanish, and then finally being defeated by the Portuguese.  The president of Paraguay gave him safety but banished him to a ranch near Asuncion, where he would live out the rest of his days. General Artigas planted an Ibirapita tree in the courtyard of his house, and he would sit in the shade of the tree and drink his Yerba Mate, the traditional herbal drink made of a local holly genus called Ilex paraguariensis. The drink is served in a gourd and sipped with a tin or silver straw.

Seedlings from this original Ibirapita were brought to Artigas, Uruguay in 1915 and one was  planted in the main plaza in honor of General Artigas. Later it was moved to the park in front of the train station (now the bus station). A plaque identifies it as a seedling of the original tree that Artigas sat under in Paraguay.  The ranch in Paraguay is now a school with teachers from Uruguay.

You can spot Ibirapita trees all around Montevideo, but they're not as abundant as you would think, given their beauty and symbolic meaning to all Uruguayans.  It is planted in parks and gardens, and it is used as a street tree.  According to El Pais (10 Aug 2016), only 1% of Montevideo's street trees are native species.  Most are exotics: the Plane Trees including Sycamores, Ash, Willow, Maple and Eucalyptus.  Arborists are testing native trees in Tacuarembo to see which ones will make good street trees, with well-behaved roots, and which tolerate pruning. They're testing and getting good results from medium sized trees such as Guayabos, Arrayan, Pitanga and Araza.  For large avenues and parks, the arborists recommend Ibirapita  and Timbo.

According to El Pais, in Montevideo they started planting Ibirapita about 30 years ago along Avenida del Libertador, Avenida Italia and General Flores, where I took this photo.  They're growing beautifully and are doing very well. When you're out and about in March, keep an eye out for this gorgeous tree.

Ibirapita "Arbol de Artigas" used as street trees on Avenida General Flores, Montevideo, 26/2/18
Photo by Cory Giacobbe