"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message
news
(J. Del Col) wrote:

Be aware that plane trees are very messy, dropping fruit and bark all
around
them. Also, the wood is brittle; they drop twigs and branches quite
readily.

Many urban planners like them because they drop the fruit with the
leaves in a well defined period, so are easy to clean up around.

The branches that drop off are called by arborists as self-pruning.

This may be true in some areas, but in my community they are notorious for
keeping their brown hard plasticky fall leaves for several months and
dropping them slowly from October to mid December. However, I do think their
patchy light grey bark and fairly light green leaves are very striking, and
they make a dramatic, long-lived avenue tree. So, it's something of a
trade-off. Maples are messy for a shorter period - but with their dark
brown/grey bark are not as striking in the landscape.
One nice advantage of London plane trees is that they can exist on much
less water than many large decidious trees. (Or else they do a better job of
finding it in sewer pipes...lol) .In my western climate, that's a definite
advantage.