Is this a London planetree (Platanus x hispanica) that’s been pollarded? It could be. There are two clues: (1) London planetrees are often pollarded; (2) the anti-vermin wrap of metal around the trunk reminds me of the London planetrees in the heronry in Stanley Park that are wrapped to protect the young Great Blue Herons while they are still in their nests.
And yet, the trunk doesn’t look like it is London planetree. I will have to wait until the tree grows leaves to know what it is.
The University of California in Berkeley says, “Historians trace the modern practice of pollarding back to medieval Europe, where feudal lords — who owned the trees — permitted the peasantry to harvest foliage and new-growth branches for firewood, animal feed and building materials,” (https://news.berkeley.edu/2011/12/14/campus-tree-pollarding/).
These two shrubs pruned in readiness for spring look very similar. But a closer look shows that the first photo is of a hydrangea (I will have to wait to find out which one) and the second photo is of a red current (Ribes sanguineum). Do you see the clustered buds coming out just below a leaf on the left in the photo below?
Finally, beside Nelson Street, an arterial city street in downtown Vancouver, a horsechestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) has been cut down to about 50 cm above the soil. And out of that stump are growing perhaps a hundred suckers, also called basal shoots or, by arborists, adventitious shoots. I think it is a horsechestnut because the buds in pairs atop each shoot are brown, sticky, and grow opposite each other. Also the occasional conker and leaflet still litter the ground around the trunk. How could this tree ever be called “common” horsechestnut?
