Re: street trees?



Hi Sean et al,

I like Gleditsia triacanthos (Honey Locust), whose small leaves offer very few problems, but my caveat is that we have to keep them trimmed, and even then we have had branches fall spontaneously. The good things are the deep taproot and desert water requirements, and the lovely bright shade.

Judy Person, Pleasanton CA
On Jan 28, 2014, at 12:18 PM, "Sean A. O'Hara" <s*@gimcw.org> wrote:

Heather -

We have thousands of London plane, Platanus ×acerifolia (Platanus ×hispanica; P. orientalis × P. occidentalis) in the SF Bay Area as well!  Probably one of the most overused tree we have IMHO.  Often pollarded into 'fists' but in these days of budget cuts, many municipal trees that were formally pollarded are left to their own now (or sporadically pruned).  The utility companies also do
their own very drastic pruning to keep these trees away from wires.

I like our native California Sycamore, P. racemosa, and I've seen many beautiful specimens of P. occidentalis in France.  All of these tend to become large for a 'street tree', but people force them into the role regularly.

The problem I have with Platanus ×acerifolia is that the leaves get powdery mildew so easily in our area (though I've seen this in Italy also) and start falling in summer, continuing through fall & early winter.  So you have a persistent mess of large, dried leaves that tend to blow around.  In a recent wind storm, there was a pile that accumulated in my neighborhood about the size of a VW Beetle!!

Too often used, and not necessarily climate appropriate.



On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 9:27 AM, Heather Martin <h*@clara.net> wrote:

Well since I live in south-east England and spend quite a lot of time in Greece I think immediately of plane trees. But of coursethey’re big, so perhaps not what you were meaning by “street trees” Sean. I think the classic London plane tree is Platanus x hispanica  and you often see a single large plane tree in the square of villages in the Peloponnese, Platanus orientalis.

Heather

 

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