Plane tree logs

[Keith_Beef]

Just before thanksgiving, the phone company ran a tie cable from a pole to a nearby plane tree on a patch of green land by my house.

Now, this tree had a dead branch hanging over where the cable was going to be attached, so the technician went up in his cherry-picker and sawed off the branch.

Down there on the grass were three seven-foot lengths of nine-inch diameter dry firewood.

I carried one home one night, another the next, and my brother-in-law brought one in the third night.

I sawed it up on the back porch into hearth-lengths.

I was pretty amazed at this wood; it takes ages to burn through. One log I put on the fire one night was still smoldering and hot the following morning, just left in the hearth (not buried in the ashes, as I usually do). I used it the following night to light the fire again.

Another piece, left in the edge of the hearth, took a full three days and nights to burn away.

Now, when I pick up my son from school, we always bring home small pieces that have broken off the tree. Usually no more than an inch in diameter, and a gnarly eight to twenty inches in length.


Keith.

 

[Tony]

I need some of that wood!

Is it burning hot?

 

[stovie]

I need some of that wood!

You could always take your folding saw and ask

Plane Tree Collections

The National Trust holds an NCCPG National Collection, of seven forms of Platanus, at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire. Other significant British collections are held at principal botanic gardens, including particularly Kew Gardens and The Hillier Arboretum, Hampshire.

 

[redflex]

The cell sturture of the plane is very dense, so not much air in it.


The leaves are very good for holding pollutants, so the have high levels of various elements in them.

They were planted in london to help reduce pollution.

 

[Fluxus]

I went to see 3 huge London Plane trees at Bryanston School in Dorset recently. The trees are known as the "******** of Bryanston" a play on the dubious parentage of the London Plane - a hybrid of the Oriental and Western Plane, not the students of the school! Two of the group reach a height of nearly 160 feet and are the tallest known broadleaved trees in Britain. There is a page on them in 'Meetings with Remarkable Trees' if anyone has a copy

 

[ilovemybed]

The cell sturture of the plane is very dense, so not much air in it.


The leaves are very good for holding pollutants, so the have high levels of various elements in them.

They were planted in london to help reduce pollution.

The bark helps there too - the way it flakes off means that the trunk and inner, living bark is never clogged up with pollutants.

 

[Nemisis]

Sounds like a good hard wood for knife handles and a spoon whats it like to work?
Dave.

 

[tomtom]

apparently upward of 15million a year is spend on re-planting plane trees on the streets of our citys because they are often in poor soil and so much of the area around their roots is paved they dont get enough water.. so there must be a hella big pile of dead ones somewhere.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I need some of that wood!

Is it burning hot?

Got none left, so I can't really tell.

It seemed a little less hot than the bought firewood (mix of oak, wild cherry and ash with no bark).

Even if it isn't as hot as you'd like, it would be nice to have a bit of this that you can put on the fire before going to sleep. Then you'd be pretty certain to have a coal that you could use next morning to light kindling for the breakfast fire.


K.