Platanus orientalis Seeds | Oriental Plane
LATIN NAME: Platanus orientalis
COMMON NAME: Oriental Plane
Plant Profile
Oriental plane is a large deciduous tree, and the figure usually quoted for it needs correcting: it does not stop at five or ten metres, it reaches twenty to thirty metres, with a trunk that can be two metres across and a crown that spreads as wide as the tree is tall. Old specimens are among the largest broadleaved trees in Europe and western Asia, and they are also among the longest-lived.
The bark is the most distinctive feature. It flakes away in irregular plates, exposing patches of cream, olive, grey and pale brown beneath, so that the trunk looks like a camouflage pattern or a jigsaw. The pattern is individual to each tree, and it is the reason plane trees are planted wherever a large trunk is going to be looked at.
The leaves are large, palmately lobed, five-lobed and maple-like, up to twenty-five centimetres across, and they turn a dull yellow-brown in autumn. The flowers are inconspicuous, in round heads, and the fruit is a ball of small, hairy achenes that hangs on the tree through winter and breaks up in spring, releasing seed on the wind and a fine irritant fluff that makes some people sneeze.
Its native range runs from the Balkans and Greece through Turkey and the Levant to Iran and Central Asia, in river valleys and on flood plains, where the roots can reach water. It has been planted across Europe and the Mediterranean for so long that it is hard to tell native from introduced, and it is the parent, with the American species, of the London plane.
Science & Biotechnology
The London plane, Platanus x acerifolia, is a hybrid of this species and the American Platanus occidentalis, and it is the tree that dominates city planting in temperate Europe. The hybrid inherits the oriental plane’s tolerance of pruning and pollution and the American species’ vigour, and it is propagated by cuttings because it is largely sterile. That hybrid origin is the reason the oriental plane’s own characteristics are often described second-hand.
The genus has a long fossil record, and plane-like leaves and fruiting heads are known from the Cretaceous. The family is now placed close to the Proteaceae in some analyses, which is a surprising result given how different the two look, and the relationship has been studied with molecular data rather than morphology.
The tree’s longevity is documented. Individual oriental planes are known to be over two thousand years old, and the plane of Hippocrates on Kos is a grafted descendant of a tree that was already ancient in classical times. The species resists decay in the heartwood, it sprouts vigorously from the stump, and it can regenerate after fire, flood and severe pruning, which is why it lives so long in places where people have been cutting wood for millennia.
Its main disease problems are anthracnose, which causes shoot blight in wet springs, and canker stain, a lethal vascular disease caused by Ceratocystis platani that has killed many trees in southern Europe. Canker stain spreads on pruning tools and on infected wood, and it is the reason movement of plane material is restricted in some countries.
Uses & Benefits
The tree is planted for shade and for the trunk. It is one of the great avenue and square trees of Europe and the Middle East, and its ability to regrow after hard pruning makes it suitable for pollarding, which is how it has been managed for fodder and firewood for centuries. In a large garden it is a specimen for a riverside or a wet hollow, where the roots can find water.
The wood is hard, close-grained and difficult to work, and it is used for furniture, flooring, butcher’s blocks and turnery. It is not a major commercial timber, but it is valued where a tough, pale wood is wanted. The bark has been used in tanning, and the leaves and bark appear in the folk medicine of the region as astringents.
The medicinal use is minor. Plane bark decoctions were used for diarrhoea and for skin complaints in European and Middle Eastern practice, and the leaves were applied to wounds. There is no modern evidence and no standardised preparation, and the tree should be treated as an ornamental rather than a remedy.
Ecologically the tree is valuable in riverine systems, where its roots stabilise banks and its crown provides shade over water. It is also a host for a large community of lichens and insects, and old trees with hollow trunks are important roosting sites for bats. In cities it is one of the best trees for pollution tolerance, though the fruit fluff is a nuisance in late spring.
Growing from Seed
Sow the seed in autumn or early spring, after separating it from the fruiting head and removing the hairs, which irritate the skin. Sow on the surface of a loose, well-drained mix, cover lightly and keep at fifteen to twenty degrees in bright light. Germination is usually three to six weeks, and fresh seed germinates better than stored seed.
Grow the seedlings on in deep pots, since the root runs straight down, and plant out young, into deep, moist soil. The tree tolerates wet ground better than most, and it grows fast when its roots reach water. Prune to a single leader when young if a clean trunk is wanted, and remove low branches gradually; the tree responds to hard pruning by producing vigorous new shoots, which can be used to renovate an old specimen.
Our Take
The oriental plane is a tree to plant for someone who will never see it mature, and that is the point of it. It is huge, long-lived, tolerant of almost everything except canker stain and drought, and its trunk is more decorative than most flowers. Give it water, space and a hundred years, and it will become the best thing in the landscape.
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