[John]

When I was in Crete last autumn I collected some seed off a grand old Platanus orientalis in central Crete at over 600 m altitude above Spili. It came up like cress and here is a resultant pot of seedlings showing how well they did. The straight species is relatively rare in cultivation in Britain.

[MikeHardman]

Nicely done, John.

Do you remember what the seeds were like?
Several times over the years I have picked up (or picked) fruit 'globes' from plane trees in parks, and not found obvious seeds - just the myriad bits as they disintegrate. Maybe that is a character of the hybrid planes used in the parks I have visited (in the UK and Geneva, for instance).

We have scattered planes here, just as in Crete. They usually occur in/by stream beds or in gullies that obviously collect water in winter (and presumably benefit from seepage from the hillsides in spring, and relatively closer water table).

[John]

Yes they obviously need enough moisture. Here in London some years the London Planes do produce seedlings. We have two large ones in our street (nearly twice the height of our houses) and the seeds blow in and germinate in our garden and pots. This only happens occasionally though partly due to them being pollarded every few years so there will be some years they have no flowers. There is still debate about whether these are hybrids or not and possibly less fertile. Many of them will be the same clone which may also be a reason they don't produce fertile seed very often.

[Alisdair]

On the MGS trip to south-west Turkey in April last year we of course saw quite a lot of Platanus orientalis. In the drier areas they were most often near water-courses or if not in places where it seemed they were able to get their roots into pockets of underground moisture. One memorable example (in Cyclamen alpinum territory in the Lycian mountains) was this venerable chap, which struck some of us as rather sinister in an Arthur Rackham / Hobbit sort of way.

[John]

Surely trees are ladies! I believe they are in Latin?

[John]

Mike I forgot to reply to your question about the seeds. They were all very fertile and firm with no chaff from sterile ones.

[ezeiza]

There is a story in that Xerxes on  his way to Greece impressed by the beauty of one of these old venerable trees presented  it with a golden necklace as a gift.

[MikeHardman]

Thanks John

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Just to show the size of that Turkish Platanus, here Jean Vaché  standing underneath it.

[MikeHardman]

Yikes!
Actually, it reminds me a bit of the P. orientalis at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire. Such old giants often have huge branches wandering out a long way; the leverage at the point of connection to the trunk must be enormous.