Tree ID please (Frankenstein tree)

[tom89]

Hey. Can anyone explain what's happened here please in the picture. Or ID this tree for me. My friend sent me these photos so they are all I have to go off. It's situated in London. The top looks like a London plane to me. Im a gardener not a tree surgeon. I'm guessing it's either been polarded or grafted onto something else. Never seen anything like this before.

Thanks 

[Tree monkey 1682]

Graft , have u seen it ever with leaves on?

Looks like plane top and sycamore at the bottom ... be interesting to see what else people say 

[tom89]

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I'm starting to think it has to be a graft. It's strange looking isn't it. I just haven't seen such a mature tree thats been grafted before. These photos where sent to me by a friend so I will ask if he can get some photos of the leaves.

[Steve Bullman]

Oriental Plane are known for their bulbous bottoms, not sure thats what you have here though. Looks more like a graft, but possibly grafted onto an oriental?

[sime42]

2 hours ago, Tree monkey 1682 said:

Graft , have u seen it ever with leaves on?

Looks like plane top and sycamore at the bottom ... be interesting to see what else people say 

 

Yeah I'd go with that as a working assessment for now. They're the same family.

[Tree monkey 1682]

15 hours ago, tom89 said:

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I'm starting to think it has to be a graft. It's strange looking isn't it. I just haven't seen such a mature tree thats been grafted before. These photos where sent to me by a friend so I will ask if he can get some photos of the leaves.

 Somewhere near mere circa 2001 I worked on a hornbeam that was grafted to a purple leaved beech tree, was a beautiful specimen,  probably some plebs felled it now but the result was full range of leaf colours  never seen one again

[Mick Dempsey]

37 minutes ago, Tree monkey 1682 said:

 Somewhere near mere circa 2001 I worked on a hornbeam that was grafted to a purple leaved beech tree, was a beautiful specimen,  probably some plebs felled it now but the result was full range of leaf colours  never seen one again

Not discounting your story, but are you sure it wasn’t a common beech rootstock?

Would make more sense.

 

Hornbeam is a completely different species to beech.

[Stubby]

Seen a cultivar/graft of a common beech making a fern leaved beech . If you cut it anwhere , when it re sprouted it reverted to the common beech leaf but only on that limb . 

[Beardie]

17 hours ago, sime42 said:

 

Yeah I'd go with that as a working assessment for now. They're the same family.

No, 'fraid not. Planes are in their own plant family, not closely related to anything else.

[Mick Dempsey]

Somehow, I did not know that.