Sycamore shedding plates of bark

[Tim Ashburner]

Tree healthy in canopy any ideas why shedding ?

[Mark J]

That's just what syccies do, I think, mate.

 

 

[htb]

Looks normal to me for a syc over 60-70 yrs old, so long as the underlying bark is sound.

[Tim Ashburner]

Adjacent sycamore weren't peeling and shedding like this one - anything to do with drought ?

[tree-fancier123]

This  article talks about long dry summers and sooty bark disease of sycamore, never seen SBD

https://www.scotsman.com/future-scotland/tech/britain-s-sycamore-trees-under-threat-from-bark-disease-1-519361

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by tree-fancier123

[daltontrees]

Nothing to worry about. I surveyed 50 trees today, typical spectrum, of which about 5 were mature Sycamore and 2 of them had flaking bark like this. As long as the bark beneath is intact I can see no cause for alarm, it's probably just a variation betwen individuals, like one person having freckles and another not.

 

It can occasionally be a useful visual indicator of recently abnormal flexure of stems forks or limbs (hinting at underlying hollowing), but more so on Chestnut than Sycamore. I think Mattheck's various pubications hint at this. 

[Mick Dempsey]

9 hours ago, tree-fancier123 said:

This  article talks about long dry summers and sooty bark disease of sycamore, never seen SBD

https://www.scotsman.com/future-scotland/tech/britain-s-sycamore-trees-under-threat-from-bark-disease-1-519361

 

Back in the mid nineties when I worked in SE London you saw it a lot.

I recall (maybe in error) someone on here saying it had disappeared from the London area.

[se7enthdevil]

maybe the tree is just really hot???

[tree-fancier123]

6 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Back in the mid nineties when I worked in SE London you saw it a lot.

I recall (maybe in error) someone on here saying it had disappeared from the London area.

looks like there were a lot of infected trees around London - found this post from 10 years ago of a tree David Humphries' team had to monolith to make safe - it looks like Jules is right, the OPs tree is not diseased, even though it looks in trouble

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/2156-sooty-bark-disease/

 

[Mick Dempsey]

Good find, thanks.