London Plane (more or less found in the Eyewitness Companions book of Trees)

A handsome ornamental

with broadly spreading crown

Bark:

smooth and gray, pealing

revealing,

yellow and green

Leaf:

alternate, toothed, three

five, or seven pointed lobes

cut

nearly halfway to the base

shiny green above,

pale matt green

with downy hairs beneath

Flower:

petalless;

males and females

in separate clusters

on the same tree

Fruit:

burlike, pendant achenes 

covered with 

bristles, green

ripening to brown.


London plane, we salute your palmate leaf

And give thanks for all the shit

you take from us, and slough off

peeling on our streets

in puzzle like pieces.