The London Plane of Hoofddorp

Locals use this plane tree to navigate by. The register's whole reasoning for designating it monumental is two words: remarkable form, landmark, and that is the sum of what has been written about it. It grows on municipal ground in front of a notary's office at the corner of the Hoofdweg and the Manegelaan, planted, the register estimates, somewhere in the 1880s, which would make it Hoofddorp's oldest registered tree by a wide margin over almost everything else on this page. London plane is a hybrid that barely exists in the wild, first bred in seventeenth century Europe by crossing an American and an Oriental species, and it turned out to tolerate compacted soil, pollution and hard pruning better than almost anything else available, which is why it lines so many European streets and squares. Its bark flakes away in patches instead of splitting, so the trunk carries a camouflage pattern of grey, green and cream that keeps changing as old plates drop off. At around 140 years old it predates the notary's office, the Manegelaan and most of what stands near it now. The register is the only source that has looked at it. If you know when it actually went in, tell us.