The urban tree
London’s characteristic tree is the plane. It adorns many streets with broad leaves and bark that varies in colour from grey and brown to green and mauve. It shades office workers during their midday break, nourishes squirrels with its seeds, and after the leaves have fallen the plane’s attractive spherical fruit remains hanging for months more. One of the most magnificent examples of the species, the »Brunswick plane«, stands on the lawn in Brunswick Square. Its circumference measures seven metres. Because, unusually, its lower branches were not cut off, this specimen spreads out at head height. At the centre of a wide expanse of grass, the tree had the freedom to grow in its splendid natural shape.
The London plane (Platanus x acerifolia) is a separate species, probably a cross of the oriental plane (P. orientalis) and the American sycamore (P. occidentalis). In cities it attains a height of 30 to 35 metres, in the country 45 metres or more in exceptional cases. Its suitability as an urban tree was recognised in the 18th century. It is resistant against frost, drought, waterlogged conditions, compacted soil and – most important of all in the days of London smog – against pollution. Toxins cannot easily penetrate the tree, as its bark flakes off in patches and rain washes its hard, shiny leaves. It is not known how long a London plane can live, as none is thought to have died of old age. Some are 350 years old.
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Address Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZ | Public Transport Russell Square (Piccadilly Line) | Tip For refreshments or culture: the Foundling Museum at the north-east corner of Brunswick Square has an exquisite art collection, including works by Hogarth and Gainsborough, and a good café (Tue–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–5pm).
The tree on Brunswick Square, which has outlasted the original surrounding buildings, was probably planted between 1795 and 1802, a time when this part of Bloomsbury was a fine address: in Jane Austen’s »Emma«, Mr and Mrs Knightley live on Brunswick Square. It is included on the list of »Great Trees of London« along with many other planes, notably the Victorian specimen on Berkeley Square and a famous one by the entrance to the Dorchester Hotel.
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