Platanus Monumental™

Monumental™ has a strong central leader and uniform, densely branched, broad, pyramidal shape. The dense branching results in consistent foliage cover throughout the canopy. Foliage: Medium green, deeply palmate-lobed foliage for the entire growing season with a yellow fall color display. Bark: Attractive, light gray, exfoliating bark that transitions to bright white, providing striking winter interest in the landscape. Fruit: Some fruiting as a young and mature tree. Monumental™ works well as a landscape shade tree for home, commercial, and municipal park landscapes, or could be used as a residential street tree. London planetrees are known world wide for excellent tolerance to the challenges of the developed landscape including air pollution, poor drainage, compacted soil, and/or drought. Monumental™ has superior adaptability, hardiness, disease resistance, and uniform habit that make it suitable for use in the landscape. When tested against P. ‘Bloodgood’ in field trials, it proved to be a superior performer in developing consistent caliper and having a strong, straight stem. For those who prefer the broad spreading habit of the Chicagoland Grows® introduction Ovation™, Monumental™ is an excellent replacement. The branch angles of Monumental™ are much more uniform with straighter branches than the Bloodgood branch angles. The stem of Monumental™ grows much straighter and stronger than Bloodgood. Where Bloodgood has a slight bend at each node, Monumental™ grows straight.

Monumental™ is a selection that resulted from a controlled cross conducted by Dr. George Ware at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Dr. Ware received pollen from the U.S. National Arboretum and crossed it onto a native P. occidentalis growing at The Morton Arboretum. The original plant of Monumental™ has been observed in the landscape since 1994.

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