Why

[Lonsdale73]

would anyone espalier sycamore trees? Fruit trees I can understand

 

[clogs]

could make a nice arch......?
although, I will only plant trees if I can eat what grows.....just tight....

 

[novocaine]

We have this around the edge of the car park at work. it provides a barrier between the car park and surrounding flats which is nice a green in the summer so doesn't feel to intrusive to the flats and it controls to amount of space the trees take up to being a 2' line without major overhang of the car park from the tree, it also makes it easier to control the rampant growth and means they don't get to tall.

no other reason I can think of.

 

[galleywood]

I assume that in this case it is so that the branches do not overhang the path (for whatever reason) and that there is clear sky above.

 

[Tris]

Known as pleaching, often done with lime trees, beech and hornbeam too. Iirc it's usually to provide shade to a walkway without interrupting the views or having the deep shade trees would cast.

 

[Droogs]

Very common style of tree management in old Italian public parks, especially in the villages in Tuscanny..

 

[akirk]

I love the look of that -I think there are those (including me!) who are very pleased by neat lines and repeating patterns others prefer a more natural look...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think the sycamores are maples.

 

[Tris]

I think the sycamores are maples.

Yes, the leaves look too shiny for sycamore. I'd take a guess at Norway maple

 

[Argus]

Very common style of tree management in old Italian public parks, especially in the villages in Tuscanny..

About 45 years ago I worked in North Africa and spent an amount of time in Tripoli. I cannot recall the species, but many of the old roads in the city leading to the Suk in the old quarter and the castle were lined with pleached trees in the Italian style. They were very well looked after, too.
Some of the more established oil camps in the desert did something similar with Eucalyptus trees - mainly because they were quick growing.

.

 

[Inspector]

Curious. How is this any different than shaping hedges along sidewalks and driveways?

Pete

 

[Tris]

Curious. How is this any different than shaping hedges along sidewalks and driveways?

Pete

Pleached trees are trained on a system of horizontal wires so a central trunk then pairs of branches trained off horizontally with about 16 inches between pairs.
They are clipped a couple of times a season depending on the species and size then all side shoots are taken off in winter to leave just the trunk and horizontals.

 

[Inspector]

Thanks for the explanation.

Pete

 

[Lonsdale73]

Known as pleaching, often done with lime trees, beech and hornbeam too. Iirc it's usually to provide shade to a walkway without interrupting the views or having the deep shade trees would cast.

That would make sense. It was in the grounds of a former abbey that became a private house following dissolution.

Does Norway maple share the same winged seeds of the sycamore? I know the sycamore in my backgarden produces very different looking seeds to the maple out front and the espaliered trees had those matching my sycamore, not the maple.

 

[AJB Temple]

I really like pleached trees. Can also be done with a flat canopy. You ca buy them ready formed in Dutch nurseries as they are quite commonly used over there.

 

[Tris]

Lonsdale73:
Any trees in the Acer family will have paired winged seeds of some form. Some hold them as single pairs (Japanese types) and some as bunches of pairs (sycamore and Western types).
If yours are different from the type I'd be interested in seeing a photo to try to identify the tree.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Without looking into it deeper iirc maple leaves are alternate, sycamore leaves are in pairs. Don't take this as gospel.