The 12th Avenue NE London Plane

This London plane is wider than it is tall: Seattle's tree records give it a crown about 89 feet across on a tree 77 feet high. And it does that on several trunks rather than one. The city lists it as a Heritage Tree on the private frontage of 4123 12th Avenue NE, in the University District. Its inventory records the stems together as 78 inches across, which on a single trunk would be about 20 feet round. On a multi-stemmed tree that figure may well combine the stems, so read it as a measure of bulk rather than of one trunk. The same record is unusually frank about the tree's condition. It notes that the plane has been topped at some point, and it marks defects in the branches, the trunk and the roots. Heritage status says the city values a tree, not that the tree is in perfect shape. That inventory is our only source, and it supplies the pin, which has not been checked against the crown. A naturalist logged a plant within range in August 2026; whether it shows this plane has not been checked, so the register is the firm word that it stands. The lot is private, so look from the sidewalk. The University of Washington's world's-fair poplar is about 770 metres to the east. Nobody has published when this plane was planted. If you know, tell us.