Seen beneath the tree shown in the previous blog were these two objects. They are two seed pods of the plane tree, the one on the left being open and revealing the many seeds, each with a delicate ‘wing’, awaiting to be carried off by the breeze, an example of wind-blown reproduction.
These round seed pods with their soft spiky outer coating are probably the most characteristic thing from which to identify a plane tree as a species. They hang like Christmas tree decorations from the branches both in summer and winter, and are more obvious in the latter. They are, of course, not brightly coloured like Christmas decorations; that would make them anything but a plain tree!
Unexpectedly for a tree species with a rounded canopy the plane tree sometimes has quite twisted branches when viewed directly from underneath the canopy.