The Lussich Arboretum is an

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

of located in the

Maldonado Department The Maldonado Department (; ), with an area of and 212,951 inhabitants (2023), is located to the southeast of Uruguay. Its capital is Maldonado, Uruguay, Maldonado. Geography Neighbouring departments are Rocha Department, Rocha to the East, Lav ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

near

Punta del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...

and Punta Ballena.

History

On 5 October 1896 Antonio Lussich bought a terrain of , which extend from "Arroyo el Potrero" to "Sierra de la Ballena" and from

Rio de la Plata Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

to Laguna del Sauce, land which at that time consisted only of sand dunes and stones. The next year ''Antonio Lussich'' started the forestry works which had as objective on one hand, to forest the dry lands in an attempt to stop the high winds that came from the ocean, and on the other, once the forest was established, to encourage

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

to inhabit it. In order to do that, ''Antonio Lussich'', thanks to the enterprise of maritime rescue contracts obtained all over the world, could manage to get seeds from numerous continents. He bought seeds, plants and trees from around the world and planted them around his house. The first trees planted were ''

Tamarix The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Ta ...

'', sea pines, ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

'' and '' Acacia trinervis'' to resist the strong winds and sand. During December 1979, was donated to the Municipality of Maldonado and then opened to the public. The Lussich Arboretum is one of the most important Forest Reserves in the world.

Species

The Lussich Arboretum has more than 400 exotic

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

and around 70

an species.Species in the Lussich Arboretum (Spanish)
Between many of the

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...

species, the most important are: * ''

Abies Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

'', 6 species. * ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'', 8 species. * ''

Cupressus ''Cupressus'' (common name cypress) is one of several genus, genera of evergreen conifers within the Family (biology), family Cupressaceae; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group. Based on genetic and morpho ...

'', 9 species. * ''

'', 45 species. * ''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

'', 10 species. * ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'', 20 species. * ''

Quercus An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

'', 16 species. * ''

Thuja ''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. M ...

'', 4 species.

References

{{Coord, 34, 53, 0, S, 55, 2, 8, W, region:UY-MA_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Arboreta Trees of Uruguay Parks in Uruguay Maldonado Department

History

Species

See also

References