The fig tree immortalized by the poet Miguel Hernández is reproduced | News from the Valencian Community | EUROtoday

In some of the intimate moments of his poetry, Miguel Hernández needs to rescue his good friend Ramón Sijé from loss of life. Mine the earth till you discover it, he says Elegy, kiss his noble cranium, ungag him and return him. But to not his home, however to his backyard and his fig tree, which characterize “his family, his childhood, his identity,” says José Luis Ferris, biographer of the Orihuela poet. The fig tree, which nonetheless stands within the patio of Miguel Hernández's birthplace, “is the reference tree” within the work of the creator of The lightning that by no means stopssays Ferris. But it’s already an outdated specimen and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH), by an settlement with the Oriolano metropolis council, is “giving it basic care and multiplying it through cuttings” which have develop into an institutional reward, based on Juan Martínez, director of the School Polytechnic Superior of Orihuela (EPSO), belonging to the UMH. Its clones are already inexperienced within the Royal Botanical Garden and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid, within the Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha (Cuenca) or on the grounds of Joan Manuel Serrat. And its cargo to Moncloa and La Zarzuela is processed.

“The fig tree was like a sculpture that Miguel needed to caress daily,” Ferris continues, “and he constantly quotes it in his poetic prehistory, before the publication of Expert in moons”. An emblem that it was determined to protect “as of 2017, when the 75th anniversary of the poet's death was celebrated,” Martínez recollects. “We signed an agreement with the city council that, on the one hand, addressed the conservation and care” of the unique fig tree. “We undertook the restoration of the trunk, which had a large hole, and we built a support for one of its arms, which was in danger of breaking,” continues the college professor. The settlement additionally offered for care resembling “adequate pruning, providing the garden with an irrigation facility and fencing the area of ​​​​the fig tree so that visitors did not get too close.” The goal is that the specimen that seems even in Hernand's theater items “lives as long as possible,” declares Martínez.

The settlement additionally stipulated “the vegetative multiplication” of the tree by “cuttings that are exact clones” of the unique. “We intended them to be gifts that would be distributed among relevant personalities or entities.” The first to acquire it was Serrat. “Even before this project, in 2010, on the centenary of Miguel Hernández's birth,” the UMH named the Catalan singer-songwriter Doctor Honoris Causa. In that occasion, “we wanted to recognize his dissemination of Hernand's work, which we all know thanks to his songs,” says Martínez. Serrat acquired the primary reducing from the fig tree. This 12 months they took others to the Botanical Museum, the Museum of Natural Sciences and the Paleontological Museum. And this week, the grasp ice cream maker Fernando Saenz, creator of the “fig shadow” taste, which he makes with leaves and tastes and smells just like the attribute aroma of fig timber after the rain, acquired one other copy. After the supply, Saenz gave a grasp class to the Food Science and Technology college students on the Oriolano campus.

The course of that replicates the plant to which Miguel Hernández was so connected begins with annual pruning, “which seeks the balance of the branches and correct coverage from the sun.” The stays of the reduce “are taken to the Orihuela campus”, for eminently agronomic research, the place the cuttings are given “small wounds at the base to facilitate root growth.” Then, Martinez says, “they are immersed in a solution of indolebutyric acid (IBA), a compound that helps plant growth. Once they show signs of progress, the cuttings are transferred to “trays with a perlite substrate”, during which they spend “about sixty or seventy days”. As quickly as they take root, “they are transplanted into pots for outdoor cultivation.” If one of many ceremonies for giving this reward coincides with the winter season, during which the fig timber lose their leaves, “they are moved to a greenhouse and with the heat, they begin to sprout,” says the college professor.

It just isn’t unusual that the poet's household house loved a fig tree in its patio. “It is a fruit tree from arid areas,” says Martínez, “that can live in conditions of little water.” It is a tree “very typical of orchard houses” within the space, the Alicante area of Vega Baja, “because its fruits are widely accepted” among the many inhabitants, with particular incidence in Albatera, a city positioned 14 kilometers from Orihuela. well-known for its breva colar crops. It additionally proliferates “on rural roads”, in city gardens or on steep terrain. It even grows on the shores of the Mediterranean. “It is very resistant,” confirms the director of EPSO. But not immortal. Another level of the settlement “proposes that, when her death occurs, a kind of shrine be built over her, so that it remains in Miguel's house as a wooden monument.”

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