The "French plane tree" from Paris to Shanghai
Shanghai was the first city in China to introduce plane trees, and as early as the second half of the 19th century, there was an introduction of plane tree species in the Shanghai public concession. In the Hengfu Historical Landscape Conservation Area, a large boulevard composed of plane trees is a testament to the beginning of the planting of street trees in Shanghai that year. Because the Chinese people did not know this tree at that time, but felt that this tree looked like a plane tree, so they called this imported goods "French plane tree", referred to as "French plane tree".
So in its hometown of Paris, France, how was the "French plane tree" applied to urban planning?
originate
Speaking of Paris, one has to talk about the famous urban planner: Baron George Eugène Haussmann (27 March 1809 – 11 January 1891). He presided over the urban renewal plan of Paris from 1853 to 1870. Under his planning, tall two-ball plane trees were planted for the first time on both sides of the Haussmann Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Paris, as street trees, which became a model for the boulevards of the major cities in the future. Since the opening of Shanghai, plane trees, one of the main street trees in Paris, have also been naturally introduced by the French.
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PARIS HISTORY
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PARIS NOWDAYS
Planting area
The use of this tree species is extremely widespread, whether in Paris or Shanghai, it is planted on the side of the road as a street tree, but also in the park green space as a landscape tree. Due to historical reasons, compared with the century-old trees that abound in Paris, the plane trees in Shanghai are much younger, but large plane trees can be seen in Xuhui's Hengfu Historical Landscape Protection Area, Xiangyang Park, Hengshan Park, and Kangjian Park.
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PARIS PLATANUS
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SHANGHAI PLATANUS
trim
In Paris, plane tree street trees are generally natural growth types, in order to prevent scratching vehicles and pedestrians, the French cut off the branches under the plane tree. On the Champs Elysées, the most famous of Paris, the French trimmed the plane trees into geometric shapes, reflecting the symmetrical and orderly beauty of the French classical gardens.
In Shanghai, considering the danger of typhoons in summer, when pruning plane trees, most of them use happy type + cup type pruning. The purpose of this pruning method is to strengthen the shade range, dredge the main trunk corridor of the tree to prevent typhoons, and through this method, the overall height of the street tree can be depressed and the thickness of the tree fence can be increased.
In addition to cup-shaped pruning, for those oversized plane trees in Shanghai that have grown into towering trees, maintenance pruning is mostly used, and measures are taken to remove dead branches and rotten heads in maintaining the characteristics of their tree type.
Trim mode
Tall trees are pruned in Paris in a manner similar to rock climbing, and technical craftsmen use ropes to prune them like climbing mountains. These geometric street trees on the Champs Elysées are trimmed with full mechanization of ascending cars.
In Shanghai, craftsmen climb bamboo ladders to fork the first-level trees of plane trees and climb them step by step with hand saws/chainsaws for manual pruning. In the Hengfu Landscape Protection Area, those oversized plane trees are manually trimmed with ascending cars.
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Shanghai's plane tree pruning method has also attracted the attention of overseas media, who call Shanghai's tree repair craftsmen "tree surgeons". The French reporter has interviewed Yang Guokun, a senior technician at the Innovation Studio, and experienced first-hand how to prune a tree in Shanghai.
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PARIS PRUNING
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OVERSEA MEDIA INTERVIEW-TREE SURGEON
Den treatment
In Paris, except for the main scenic roads that cover the tree cavities with cast iron covers, the other roads do almost no tree cavities treatment.
Shanghai has very high requirements for sidewalk tree cavities, and all sidewalk tree cavities are covered. There are many types of sidewalk tree covers in Shanghai, including cast iron, plasticization, composite, step stone, etc. A variety of types and materials of cover, in recent years, with the surrounding history and culture, Shanghai has also introduced a lot of personalized LOGO tree hole cover.
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PARIS TREES COVER
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SHANGHAI TREES COVER
A hundred years ago, the French brought the plane tree street tree to Shanghai, and the predecessors of the Shanghai garden industry continued to open up the past, digested and absorbed, and adopted a more suitable localized Shanghai plane tree maintenance method, especially Shanghai's original plane tree "happy type + cup-shaped" pruning method, which is the biggest highlight in the maintenance of Shanghai's garden industry, even if it looks at the world, it is unique.
When strolling through the streets and alleys of Shanghai's Hengfu Style Reserve in the middle of summer, the tall and multi-branched plane trees shade the sun and the breeze blows through the lazy romantic atmosphere, bringing a unique charm to Shanghai, which is known as the "Paris of the Far East".
Material source: @ Xuhui green cityscape