Rome’s iconic umbrella pines imperilled by pests and the axe

ROME – The protesters who gathered on an arid patch of lawn in Rome’s central Piazza Venezia hailed from neighbourhoods all around the capital, but they had one concern in common: saving the towering umbrella pine trees that for centuries have adorned the city’s low-slung skyline but are disappearing in distressing numbers.

In the eyes of some Romans, however, it’s not just the bugs that are to blame for the demise of so many umbrella pines, but also a city government that has sometimes struggled to deliver basic services like garbage pickup. There’s been road work in the square, and after one tree fell in July, several others were chopped down.

Many maintenance contracts are outsourced to private vendors, and critics say city officials do not perform enough oversight. In October, Italy’s unofficial national orchestra, the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, will open its season with Ottorino Respighi’s symphony Pines Of Rome.

But researchers are seeking other techniques, aware that the current costly and high-maintenance approach “can’t be an eternal solution”, said Mr Pio Federico Roversi, the director of a national research centre for plant protection. “We can’t imagine a future where for the next 100 years pines will be on a drip feed. It would no longer be nature, it would be a hospital.”

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