Splanchnonema platani

[David Humphries]

Has it been seen north of London?

 

 

 

No evidence given during the talk of it being outside of London, yet.

 

 

& to be honest I got the impression that no other London Boroughs are either

aware that they have it or proactively even looking for it. (which could be a resource issue)

 

I'd imagine that there will now be an increase in closer inspection of park & roadside Planes

(certainly in the central London areas) after this.

 

 

It sounds like it is spreading very quickly from it's first identification in Southern Europe in the mid nighties, to it being very prominant in Northern Europe now.

 

 

Germany is reported to have it in 75% of it's roadside Planes

(not sure if this is a complete national stat or for a specific area)

 

The Dutch & Germans are spending ever increasing time & resource on inspection, mainly using Mewps.

 

 

 

 

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Edited February 13, 2011 by Monkey-D

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I wonder what the knock on effect will be?....

 

will budgets be increased....

 

or will budgets just be shifted from other less vital (conservation etc) areas to balance it out.

 

I wonder if reduced trees are less prone? they would not have the same need to apply tension ropes to the same level as an overly extended Plane limb?

[David Humphries]

Shade & drought type stress appear to be aportioned as part of the reason.

 

& compaction caused by the sheer numbers of visitors/commuters.

 

guess the Victorians didn't have a handle on how many people would be using these parks at this stage of the trees maturity.

 

Global tourism wasn't such a biggy back then

 

 

 

It was offered by Derrick Patch, that thinning out the avenues could reduce the stress around shade & moisture competition.

 

 

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

iether way, the costs will be taken rather than given

[sean]

Thanks for updating the thread Janey and David........Looks like Royal parks for one will have their work cut out with this and OPM:thumbdown:

[sean]

Spent the day In Hyde Park today dealing with the effects of this fungi.....it really seems to be taking hold now......and is going to be a big headache. So hard to spot from the ground. One or two bits of deadwood could be seen but once in the canopy things certainly change. What appears to be perfectly healthy branches from the deck can suddenly be seen for the hazard that they have become. And indeed there has been some major failure recently) As can be seen from the photos the cambium on the upper surface is completely gone and the branch is dead........with the lower portion (in certain cases) very much alive........although in the later stages the branch completely dies off. So many hangers in the 4 trees we did today where failures have occured. The speed at which some of these branches are dying off is worrying although some of the larger ones we took out today appear to have been infected for quite some time allowing for callousing and branch collars to begin forming at the stem. The pile of deadwood in the photo was from 2 trees............we have a bloody big list to get through.......mainly along the route of the Royal wedding......

 

I'm sure alot of Tree Officers in London are having kittens about this and future management of London Planes is going to need a big rethink i feel.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

good post sean, looks like another fungi assisting thinning to me:001_rolleyes:

[janey]

I'm sure alot of Tree Officers in London are having kittens about this and future management of London Planes is going to need a big rethink i feel.

 

You're not wrong there! I'd be very interested to see the stat's for the percentage of London trees, especially in Inner London, that are Planes. I bet it's well above the 30-20-10 model.

[David Humphries]

Useful update sean, thanks for that

 

 

 

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[Fungus]

The Dutch & Germans are spending ever increasing time & resource on inspection, mainly using Mewps.

 

David,

What does Mewps stand for ?