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Knowledge
By: Pedro José Cifuentes Rosso
Technical Agronomy Engineer, head of the Parks and
Gardens Department
FCC Medio Ambiente, Murcia–Almería branch office
Biological
control
Current globalisation and the absence of
measures to ensure safe mobility of bota-
nic material have been the reason for the
new plagues that have been introduced in
Europe through “aggressive invasive exo-
tic plants”. FCC’s Parks and Gardens de-
partment in Cartagena has identified one
of these new plagues which have affected
Ficus trees.
The results of this research project, laun-
ched in 2009, were recently reported in
an article published in the magazine of the
Spanish Association of Public Parks and
Gardens. It was also possible in this project
to achieve the biological control of this pla-
gue with the help of insect and ecological
products without the need to use chemical
treatments that are generally very aggressi-
ve for the environment.
Ficus trees were discovered in the Iberian
Peninsula thanks to the scientific expedi-
tions of the late 1700’s, specifically, the Ro-
yal expedition of Alejandro Malaspina and
José Bustamante. This botanic material
was introduced gradually in botanic gar-
dens in the Mediterranean and later in our
cities as isolated specimens or in clusters in
the beginning of the 20th century.
Until now, hardly any problems affected
these trees except for mechanical and
structural problems in relation to more than
100-year old specimens because of chan-
ges in the microclimate at their place of ori-
gin, as we described in the 7th Congress
of the Spanish Arboriculture Association in
2002.
Certain anomalies in microcarpa Ficus were
detected in 2009. The symptoms are ex-
pressed as easily visible waxy or whitish
cotton-like filaments that diminish the or-
namental value of these trees and which
virulently attack and kill these specimens.
After a more thorough inspection, we dis-
covered an insect in the new and tender
leaves which was identified as a psylla that
was responsible for the cotton-like symp-
toms. At that time, we did not find any bi-
bliography that associated this plague with
the Ficus as an ornamental tree.
The harmful insect was identified as the
macrohomotoma gladiata, psylla (bugs) ori-
ginating in east Asia and in Indonesia. Si-
milar to a cicada, the adult insect, however,
measures 2 to 3 millimetres long. Its wings
are membranous and transparent with dark
underside ribs.
Our responsibility as conservation mana-
gers and the implementation of a Sustai-
nable Management System, presented in
the 6th Iberoamerican Parks and Gardens
Congress in 2009, has made it necessary
for us in the last few years to find more en-
of a new plague affecting
the city’s trees