Under The London Plane Tree

I accidently came across a "Tree Tour" at Woodlands Cemetery, and I tagged along for the last two stops. This one was about the London Plane, which is common in Philadelphia because it was the favored urban street tree of the 19th Century. But guide David Hewitt added much that I didn't know. This species thrived in cities all over the world because of the Industrial Revolution and the sooty, urban environments created by it. No one expected that these trees would love it.

This is a grand specimen, imported by the original owner of the land before it became a cemetery. Mr. Hewitt has determined that many of the trees imported as American Sycamores and/or Oriental Planes were often the extremely similar London Planes. The Londons are by far the most common of the three now in this region.

These wonderful trees are all over my neighborhood, but with utility wires and sidewalks giving them grief, they usually do not look as good as this one, which was so big that, if I included it all, the people in my blip would look like ants!