Death of mature Plane trees

[alliaria]

Hi,

Anyone seen the sudden deterioration and death of mature plane trees?

There is an avenue in Bristol of mature planes, Platanus sp. That have about 8 standing dead trees and others with substantial dieback and poor canopy cover.

The bark is peeling off and there are some signs of staining . There are no exil holes, larvae tunnels or fruiting bodies.

These are about 90 to 100 years old and comprise of different clones, ie some fat, some smooth, etc. about 40-70 diameter at 1.3m.

This is rapid possibly over winter?

Any ideas?

I.ll post some pics. but they don.t really tell you anything.

Cheers.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

massaria?

[RobArb]

you may need to climb to look at the top of the branches as with massaria you probably won't see any symptems from the floor

[alliaria]

massaria?

 

Hi Hama,

In my experience, and i,ts only just reached us, massaria causes localised branch damage with lesions on the upper side.

This is catastrophic, standing dead trees, very reminiscent of dutch elm, horizontal cracks in the trunk, a bit like greenwood drying out.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I hear you, but, i still point toward massaria, and add into this equation the obvious increased effects due by drought.

[alliaria]

Is this happening anywhere else, sudden death of mature planes won,t go unnoticed, they consist of something like 35% of our urban tree stock in bristol, doesn,t bear thinking about.

[RobArb]

have you got the pics to look at?

[janey]

Hi,

There is an avenue in Bristol of mature planes, Platanus sp. That have about 8 standing dead trees and others with substantial dieback and poor canopy cover.

.

 

Salt damage taking it's toll? That doesn't initially account for the lesions though.

[alliaria]

I,ll post them tomorrow

[alliaria]

Hi,

The path was probably heavily treated, but the roots probably preferentially spread in the other direction, canopy spread of 15m. or so.