Each year in Kyiv the hot spring weather brings with it blooming chestnuts. This time around, however, it’s not just those suffering from allergies who are feeling irritated.
Where people expected to see rosy-red flowers typical of hybrid Italian chestnuts – recently planted on Khreshchatyk with great fanfare – only the usual white ones have bloomed, bringing into question the origin of the trees and the money spent on purchasing them.
“White color is absolutely not (characteristic) for
hybrid chestnuts,” says Volodymyr Boreiko, the head of Kyiv’s ecological and
cultural center. “But I’m not certain about all the trees as most of them have
not started blooming yet.”
As for now, approximately one chestnut in ten is
blooming, according to Boreiko, and all have white flowers. “That means either
we’ve been totally deceived by (Kyiv city council head Oleksandr) Popov or
(white-flower chestnuts) are just individual cases,” he says.
Meanwhile, representatives of Kyivzelenbud, the
municipal firm responsible for planting the chestnuts, say the case will be
examined by specialists as they claim to have documents that prove the Italian
origin of the chestnuts.
”We can’t comment on it until the trees are examined
by geneticists,” Oleksiy Tsymbaliuk, head of green space maintenance service of
Kyivzelenbud in the capital’s Shevchenkivsky district. The investigation could take up to several months as both flowers and chestnut fruits have to be examined, according to Tsymbaliuk.
A total 289 Italian chestnuts were planted on Khreshchatyk
in April. Of these 115 were donated by a charity fund, while 174 were purchased
by the city council. Purchasing and planting these chestnuts cost Hr 5,400
($675) per tree, according to the city council website, which means Hr 939,600
in municipal funds was spent on plants whose survival is challenged each day by
the heavy traffic.
The leaves of some chestnuts have already started
withering, despite the fact that Italian ones are supposedly resistant to
various diseases and bugs. While it’s still unclear what kind of chestnut was
planted on Khreshchatyk, experts are sure none could handle the air pollution,
especially in the city center.
“It’s impossible for chestnuts to grow along the
roads. And it’s silly that Kyivzelenbud is planting them this way every year. Such
trees should be planted in parks where the air is more or less clean,” Boreiko
says.
Kyiv Post
staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]
