6 14 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PLATANUS ORIENTALIS, Oriental Plane 



Platanus orientalis, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 999 (1753); Loudon, ^r^. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2033 (1838); 



Boissier, Fiora Orientalis, iv. 1161 (1879); Gamble, Manual Indian Timbers, 661 (1902); 



Schneider, Laubholzkunde, 436 (1905). 

 Platanus palmata, Moench, Metk. 358 (1794). 

 Platanus cuneata, Willdenow, Sp. PI. iv. 473 (1805). 

 Platanus acerifolia, Willdenow, Sp. PI. iv. 474 (1805). 

 Platanus laciniata, Du Mont de Courset, Bot. Cult. vi. 436 (181 1). 

 Platanus vulgaris, Spach, Ann. Sci. Nat. xv. 291 (excl. e angulosd) (1841). 

 Platanus hispanica, Tenore, Cat. Ort. Nap. 1845, P- 9'- 

 Platanus digitata, Gordon, Garden, 1872, p. 572. 



A tree, with several forms distinct in foliage and habit, most of which appear 

 to have arisen in cultivation. Bark scaling off in thin plates ; furrowed and thick 

 at the base of old trunks, variable in the different varieties.^ 



Young branchlets at first densely stellate -pubescent, becoming green and 

 glabrous in summer ; brown in the second year. Leaves at first covered with dense 

 loose white stellate pubescence on both surfaces, later nearly glabrous, the pubescence 

 being only retained here and there, mainly on the veins and midrib of the lower 

 surface, which is paler than the dark-green shining upper surface. Petioles at first 

 densely stellate, white pubescent, ultimately glabrescent. 



Fruiting heads several (two to seven) on the peduncle, bristly. Achenes with 

 basal ring of rigid long hairs, similar hairs arising also along the body of the achene, 

 the apex of which is more or less acute and ends in a long persistent style. 



Seedling:'^ caulicle slender, about \ inch long, surmounted by two narrow 

 spathulate cotyledons, obtuse at the apex, tapering to a very narrow base, sessile, 

 one-nerved, entire, glabrous, dark -green, about \ inch long. First leaf resembling 

 a petiole in shape, minute and glandular-pubescent. Second leaf spathulate-cuneate, 

 with three teeth at the apex, alternately penninerved, two of the stronger nerves 

 running into the teeth. Third leaf like the second, but larger. Succeeding leaves 

 palmately five-lobed. 



In summer, the oriental plane and its varieties are readily recognisable by the 

 leaves, bark, and habit. In winter, the twigs are rounded, striate, glabrous, with 

 numerous inconspicuous lenticels, the apex ending in a short stump, bearing an 

 orbicular scar, marking where the tip of the branchlet fell off in summer. Leaf-scars, 

 on prominent pulvini, almost but not completely surrounding the bud as a narrow 

 ring, sinuous in margin, and with five groups of bundle-dots. Stipular line surround- 

 ing the twig at the level of each leaf-scar. Base of the shoot ringed with scars, 



' Boissier states that the bark of the wild tree is rugose, and does not exfoliate, as is usually the case in cultivated trees, 

 especially in var. acerifolia, of the origin of which he knew nothing. As there is considerable variation in the size of the 

 scales of the bark on plane trees, it is probable that the difTerence noted by Boissier is individual and not varietal or specific. 

 Var. acerifolia grows usually very fest, and scales off in much larger plates as a rule than is the case in the other varieties, 

 which are slower in growth. 



Cf. Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 505, f. 653 (1892). 



