Bravo to Kris Hansen for the letter opposing the VOP’s mass plantings of non-native London Planetrees [Viewpoints, Dec. 3]. I am just as opposed, primarily for aesthetic reasons, favoring instead its native cousin, the American Sycamore, a towering tree of great beauty.
Nothing is more spirit uplifting during the dreary days of winter than going out for a walk or run on one of those inevitable bright sunny winter days, with totally clear skies, and looking up to see the leafless Sycamore’s beautiful near-white bark against a pure blue sky. Picture-perfect pleasure.
The London Planetree, by contrast, has drab gray-green bark that offers nothing like the Sycamore’s beauty. I have asked the village forester why they are no longer being planted. The explanation was that they are susceptible to a fungal disease, anthracnose, that causes loss of leaves.
One of the top Google results on that is a 1976 article that notes that infected trees typically recover quickly and rarely die from it, noting also that so little is really known about the disease, but nevertheless recommending they not be planted. That has apparently become forestry doctrinaire policy. I am sure there is updated research and knowledge, but my “research” is my 50-year exploration of Oak Park, where I find numerous ancient and beautiful specimens, usually the tallest trees around, including one directly across the street from my home, which prove the adage that they rarely die.
We still have many similarly outstanding ancient elm trees, despite the disease that killed most of them. Would it be so bad to lose some infected Sycamores as the price of providing future generations these magnificent native trees?
Please, VOP, reconsider.
I have experimented and find that a single Sycamore seed ball is quite easily germinated to result in literally scores of seedlings. Try it yourself and nurse a few to saplings; when grown enough, plant them yourself where you please. (I’ve done that with acorns, resulting in the current row of some 18 native oaks (some now 20-30 feet tall) now found along Garfield between the post office and the Home Avenue footbridge). Future generations will bless you with the adage that “we sit in the shade of trees planted by others.”
Frank Stachyra
Oak Park