Plane Tree Platanus x acerifolia

Old bark plates flake away in irregular patches, leaving cream, olive and pale grey mottling over a straight, heavy trunk, and that camouflage pattern is a large part of why the plane became a standard street tree in the southern capitals. It is at its most interesting in winter with the branches bare. Underneath the bark is a genuinely large deciduous tree with big lobed leaves and a broad high crown, used for avenues, park plantings and the pollarded and pleached rows that line older city streets.

Soil volume is the whole question

It wants full sun, moderate water and grows fast, holding a formal avenue line for decades and tolerating restricted root space, compaction, alkaline ground and hard pruning. None of that means it can be planted anywhere. The failure mode is squeezing it into a narrow strip. Given a thin verge or a small footpath cutout, the roots run along the surface hunting air and moisture, and within a couple of decades they lift pavers, crack kerbs and buckle driveway edges, which ends in a removal bill rather than a pruning bill. Work out the soil volume available before you order, give it open ground or a properly sized structural soil trench, and keep it well back from slabs, boundary walls and service lines. Away from paving, in a park or a large rural garden, it asks for very little: a deep soak through the first few summers, mulch, and space. Sizes here run from small containers through to very large stock, so an avenue can be planted in matched pairs or a single mature specimen dropped into a finished landscape.

Which plane listing to order from

The other plane in this range, Platanus acerifolia, is offered in one advanced size only, which suits replacing a lost tree in an existing row. This listing is the one to work from when you need a ladder of sizes, matched stock across a long run, or a specimen large enough to read as established the day it goes in. If the scale appeals but you would rather plant a native and skip the deciduous clean-up entirely, Sydney Red Gum reaches similar proportions with smooth salmon bark and evergreen cover, though it drops bark and limbs instead of leaves. Matching an existing council avenue is easier from this listing, since one clone and one size grade across the row keeps the line even. For the largest stock, see the super advanced trees.

Pollarding, and the difference between that and topping

A plane grown as a natural specimen needs only formative pruning in winter: one leader, evenly spaced scaffolds, deadwood out. A plane grown as a pollard is a different discipline. Start the framework while the tree is young, cut back to the same knuckles every winter or every second winter, and never let a season slide, because the regrowth gets heavier and the cuts get uglier the longer you leave it. Topping a mature natural specimen is not pollarding and produces weakly attached regrowth. Feed pollarded trees each spring, since the annual regrowth is demanding, and mulch generously to hold moisture over a root system that is working hard. Natural specimens need no feeding once established.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 8 sizes, from 300mm up to 750L, priced from $119.00 to $7239.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a tree for a small backyard.