Newington Green Plane Tree

London Plane Trees ~ Platanus

The majestic plane trees that surround and dominate Newington Green, are approximately 140 years old. One of the photos in Alex Allardyce's book 'The Village That Changed the World' (p 31 and 32) shows the newly re-designed, extremely bare and tidy Green in 1876, with the young trees already planted.

Just a few years earlier, Edgar Allen Poe the American writer, lived at Newington Green between 1817 -1820 and Allardyce quotes him as having written of the 'deeply shadowed avenues' and a 'vast number of gigantic and gnarled trees' around the Green, which were possibly elm trees - all cut down by the time our plane trees were planted.

The trunks and bark of the plane trees have created a good habitat for lichens and mosses and goldfinches have been observed feeding high in the tree canopy, presumably on the plane tree's seed balls. A species of hoverfly that lives in the rot holes of large trees, has also been found on Newington Green's plane trees.

18 April 2009