The London Plane: A Tree Suited to City Life

The London Plane: A Tree Suited to City Life

From Fabulous Folklore with Icy by Icy Sedgwick

March 7, 2026 · 18 min

About this episode

This episode explores the London Plane tree and the sparse folklore surrounding it.

Periodically, I choose a plant, tree or fungus to explore, only to find there is very little folklore about them. Invariably, there are two reasons for this. First, the plant, tree or fungus has little use to humans, so no one bothered much with it in the past. This sometimes applies to toxic specimens, too. You don't need to preserve knowledge about something you know to avoid, so there's no lore to pass on. Second, the plant, tree or fungus only arrived in the UK (or Europe) within the last couple of centuries. Again, this often results in sparse lore about them, much as we see with the horse chestnut or sycamore. I ran into this exact problem with the London Plane tree. I'd seen one featured in a 3-part documentary about trees, narrated by Michael Palin, on Cheapside in London. Having gone to meet it myself on a trip to the capital, I announced I'd be starting this month's Tree theme with the London Plane. And then I discovered how little folklore there actually is about them. Still, how they came about proves to be an interesting story on its own. The tale of the Cheapside Plane is worth exploring too. So while we've got less folklore than usual, there are still stories to…

Topics covered

  • London Plane
  • folklore
  • trees
  • urban nature

Keywords

  • Cheapside
  • Michael Palin
  • urban trees
  • history

Mentioned in this episode

Products: the London Plane, the Cheapside Plane

Books & works: Fabulous Folklore

Places: London, UK, Europe

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