Dear Readers, those of us who live in London are pretty familiar with London Plane (Platanus x hispanica) trees – they’re pretty much everywhere, and very fine they are too. But it’s easy to miss the Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis) – I found several in East Finchley Cemetery at the weekend, and was struck by how elegant they look. It isn’t actually ‘oriental’ in the sense of being from the Orient – its native range is from Italy through the Caucasus to Iran, though it is a large and handsome tree which has been transported all over the world. At its largest, it can have a diameter at breast height of 5 metres, which makes it a very chunky tree indeed.
Oriental Plane is one of the parents of London plane, along with its western counterpart, the American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis).
Fruit of Oriental Plane
The timber of Oriental Plane is also known as lacewood, but perhaps most intriguing is the use of the leaves of the tree for leaf carving, a relatively new art form that originated in China. You can see some examples here . They look as if they would take endless patience.
In India, the Oriental Plane is known as Chinar, and is associated with the Hindu goddess Bhavani. In Kashmir there has been a recent ban on cutting the trees down, and they are now registered and considered the property of the state.
Oriental Planes on Char Chinar Island in Srinagar, India (Photo By Gangadhar Tambe – Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22816744)
But here in the UK there are a number of exceptional Oriental Plane trees, including one, in Corsham Court in Wiltshire, which was planted by Capability Brown in 1760. It now has the title of ‘the most spreading tree in the UK’. It takes up an area equivalent to the size of a football pitch.
The Corsham Court Oriental Plane (from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-13682775)
The Pococke tree, an Oriental Plane planted in the gardens of Christ Church, Oxford in 1636, was thought to be the inspiration for the monster in ‘Jabberwocky’
The Pococke Tree from https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visit/gardens
Now, recently I have developed a bit of a passion for the music of Handel, so I couldn’t leave the subject of this tree without mentioning Handel’s ‘Largo’ (Ombra mai fu) from the opera Serse, based on the story of the Persian emperor Xerxes. In the aria, Xerxes praises the plane tree for its shade:
‘Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.
Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.
And here it is, in all its glory. For those of you with a classical inclination, the opera is being performed at the Barbican on June 19th (I will be there, gentle readers, and will report back). Enjoy!
Traditionally, the aria would have been sung by a castrato, but here’s countertenor Valer Sabadus, doing a pretty good job I think….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbfGLpDdXPY
and here is Cécilia Bartoli. See which you prefer.
Brilliant! Very interesting, thanks. I loved the mention of the huge one in Wiltshire.