2019 tree following 5: Leafy backgrounds

Developing leaves and flowers on the London plane (Platanus × hispanica or Platanus × acerifolia) in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay

The London plane tree in Cardiff’s Mermaid Quay is coming along nicely with the benefit of both rain and sunshine in the last few weeks.

I see it most days as I visit the Tesco store opposite to buy a sandwich for lunch or a few groceries. The changes are small but the leaves are growing bigger and the female flowers are starting their journey to becoming fruit balls.

Here are my pictures from April 29 – I find it difficult to get many of the leaves and flowers into sharp focus as there is such a mass of greenery at different distances from the lens, but here goes…

A general view – still see-throughable

The old light bulbs drape the trunk…

…which has the peeling bark characteristic of London plane trees

Young leaves in front of traffic signs

Leaves in front of a blue and white one-way sign

…a closer look

Leaves in front of windows

More background architecture

I still couldn’t quite get a grip on what plane tree flowers and fruit look like, but a page on the Oregon State University website (here) was very helpful as it had these pictures…

Male and female flowers explained on the OSU website – I can just make them out on the above pictures of the Mermaid Quay plane

This montage of images from the OSU website shows how the female flower clusters develop between April and July

There’s always a lot going on in the way of deliveries and road works here in Mermaid Quay

The pub next door – A Wetherspoons hostelry named, I assume, after the clergyman in Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood

Street light and sky

You can find all my London plane posts here…