"Thes" wrote in message
...
Franz Heymann wrote:
"Mark Phillips" wrote in message
om...

Hi All

My family were curious about this and I vowed to find out.....

We recently spent our holiday near Antibes on the Cote D'Azur. One
day one of us noticed that many of the tree trunks were patterned in a
way similar to military style camouflage fabric. On subsequent days
we began to take note that wherever we went in the region, the trees
had the same pattern and on closer examination we decided that
something is eating away at the various layers of bark to create this
effect. It is my opinion that it is probably caused by insect lavae
or such like. If you would like to see this I've posted a picture on:

http://members.fortunecity.com/bytor1/treebark.htm

My son was especially interested and quite concerned as to the
long-term effect it would have on the trees in the area. If you have
a chance, please do look I would really like to hear your opinions.


Your picture illustrated the beautifully patterned bark of a Eucalyptus
species.
But with sycamore-shaped leaves?

The illustration I saw did not show any leaves at all. It had a trunk only.

Probably not a Eucalypt as their leaves
are all lanceolate or round at best, but not lobed. Perhaps it's a
Platanus - their bark can look like that when they're still young(ish).

You might well be right after all. Platanus is much more likely than
Eucalyptus around Antibes .