Damigeron's Dungeon: Prestigious Plants - Basal Eudicots - Proteales 02

Plant Indices

Alphabetical Index (Genera)
Alphabetical Index (Vernacular)
Cladistic Index

PLANE TREE (Platanus)
Family: Platanaceae
Species: Platanus orientalis

A Plane Tree grove in the Tsav River Valley, Armenia.
Uncredited.

Names:

Plane Tree
Acer [Welsh]
Aksağaç [Turkish]
Arbore De Mesteacăn [Romanian]
Arıç [Turkish]
Avlámvaro [Greek]
Booune [Kashmiri]
Buna [Persian]
Çağala [Turkish]
Cavıdar [Azerbaijani]
Chacano [Ladino]
Chinar [Hindi/Persian/Urdu]
Chinar-E Sharqi [Persian]
Chinara [Georgian]
Cinar [Azerbaijani]
Çınar [Turkish]
Çinar Ağacı [Turkish]
Dąb Wschodni [Polish]
Doğu Çınarı [Turkish]
Doolb [Arabic]
Doulabi [Georgian]
Dub Východný [Slovak]
Eastern Plane
Eastern Plane Tree
Golinzia [Lingua Ignota]
Hacamatağacı [Turkish]
Javorolisni Platan [Croatian]
Kavak [Turkish]
Khodzhvreli [Georgian]
Lacewood
London Plane
Old World Sycamore
Oriental Plane
Oriental Plane Tree
Orientalische Platane [German]
Orientalischer Platanenbaum [German]
Pachtán Východní [Czech]
Platan [Czech/Danish/Estonian/Hungarian/Polish/Romanian/Slovak/Swedish]
Plàtan [Catalan]
Płatan [Polish]
Platanarv [Icelandic]
Platanbaum [German]
Plátano [Galician/Portuguese/Spanish]
Plátano De Oriente [Spanish]
Plátano De Sombra [Spanish]
Plátano Oriental [Spanish]
Platano Orientale [Italian]
Platane [French]
Platane D'orient [French]
Platane Oriental [French]
Platani [Maltese]
Platano [Italian/Spanish]
Plátány [Hungarian]
Platyse Anatoles [Greek]
Plawtan [Welsh]
Saftzeg [Yiddish]
Shinar [Hebrew]
Sycamore
Tshenari [Georgian]
Tsinar [Armenian]
Vostochnyi Platan [Russian]

Genus Distribution: Northern Hemisphere

Species Distribution:

Asia, Northern: Russia (North Caucasus)
Asia, Western: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
Europe, Eastern: Bulgaria
Europe, Southern: Albania, Greece (including Crete, East Aegean Islands), Italy (including Sicily), North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia

Physical Description
Platanus is the sole remaining genus of the family Platanaceae, of which we shall examine only one of the eight remaining species, P. orientalis.

The plane tree is a large deciduous tree, getting taller than 30m (98ft), well known for its longevity and expanding crown. The autumn turning of its leaves are quite dramatic, in the colors blood red, amber, and yellow.

Older trees can have hollows large enough for children to climb and hide in.

A plane tree hollow.
Uncredited, from forestry.com.

Symbolism

Victorian Flower Language
In Victorian flower language, per Greenaway, the plane tree is a symbol of genius.

Chinese Symbolism
The shedding of the tree’s leaves were a motif of sorrow in Classical Chinese poetry.

Culture

Shade
Pliny records that this eastern tree was transplanted across Europe primarily to provide shade.

Philosophy
During the dispute between Socrates and Phaedrus in the Phaedrus dialogue, Phaedrus swears on a plane tree that if Socrates doesn’t cease being difficult that he shall never recite a speech for Socrates again. Socrates conceded.

These trees also provided shade for the schools of philosophy opened by Aristotle and Plate. Pliny claimed that the great plane tree at the Academy of Athens had roots 15m (50 ft) long.

Cicero also references this Platonic plane tree in De Oratore.

The “Tree of Hippocrates” at Kos may have been a plane tree, and it is believed that the current 500 year old tree at that location may be a descendant of that tree of legend from a succession of cuttings.

"The Tree of Hippocrates," in Kos Town, Kos Island, Greece.
Believed to be descended from the original.
Own work--Steven Fruitsmaak.

These trees also feature in the squares of many Greek towns and villages, typically growing by springs, which may also explain their strong association with knowledge and sacred groves.

Wealth and Power
In addition to shade, the plane tree was imported in antiquity to express wealth and influence by rulers, as was the case in Greek Sicily during the 4th century BC, when it was planted in Rhegium by Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse.

Gaius Licinius Mucianus, a 1st century Roman general, statesman, and writer, held a banquet for 19 in the hollow of a plane tree near Lycia. Before him, Emperor Caligula had a nest-like tree house fit for himself and 15 servants built in the branches of a plane tree near Velletri.

Eastward it was introduced into Kashmir (where it is called booune) in the 14th century by the Sufi Saint Syed Qasim Shah. Following this, it became a dominant garden and landscape tree in the region. One tree at the village of Chattergam is believed to have been planted in 1374, and is believed to be the oldest surviving plane tree.

Platanus orientalis specimen, the second largest in Belgium, at Cambron-Casteau.
Own work--Jean-pol GRANDMONT.

Timber
The wood of the plane tree, called “lacewood,” is valued in the production of indoor furniture.

Dye
Fabric dye has been made from the twigs and roots.

A cross-section of London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia) lacewood, a cultivated European hybrid.
From wood-database.com.

Medical
We are not a medical website, do not take health advice from us.

The leaves and bark were used medicinally. Pliny describes its use for burns, bites, stings, frostbite, and infections.

Compiler Notes

As the root of “genius” is the same as “djinn,” this wood might be useful for tools or reagents related to interaction with djinn or spirits of fire.
The plane tree has a very strong association with sacred groves and learning. As the current "Tree of Hippocrates" in Kos is believed to be descended from the original, this could be extrapolated into a tradition. Schools of philosophy or magic may be built around gardens where the "Philosopher's Tree" is planted, being a descendant of or grown from the cutting of an original source tree, affirming a continued, living tradition of education. This might be made even more dramatic by the cultivation of the tree hollows into lecture halls!
May also be associated with tyranny in some places, due to its affiliation with powerful and wealthy rulers. In conjunction with the education tradition implied by or previous note, nativist partisans might identify the cultivated plane tree as a signifier of the foreign tyrant and of foreign education eroding the local culture.
Lacewood signifies the luxury of lace, or, in later times, intimacy (as in lacy underwear). This gives it a dimension of privilege, either in the context of the privileges of class in a noble house, or the privileges of intimacy. This intimacy could mean confidentiality or sexual knowledge.
Following from the above, the personal apartment of a faerie king or queen might be grown from a living plane tree, with this "lacewood" notion in mind.

Image Refs

[Img 01 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plane_tree_Grove_Tsav_River.jpg ]

[Img 02 - https://forestry.com/trees/plane-tree/ ]

[Img 03 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plane_tree_of_Hippocrates.jpg ]

[Img 04 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Platanus_orientalis_1bJPG.jpg ]

[Img 05 - https://www.wood-database.com/london-plane/ ]

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