Heat wave

Sorry, two scorched London Plane leaves in a row! This one beckoned to me as I was taking a brief break in Bryant Park on my way to the NYPL today, relishing a breeze before deciding that it still wasn't enough. The leaf's colors look like those on maps of temperature and air quality, both glowing in this latest wave of heat. But I also have London Planes on my mind, as I'm trying to find a way to sneak them into my book as the ultimate colonial trees, not only part of the streetscapes of 19th century cities on several continents (their peeling bark makes them resilient even along very polluted streets) but because they themselves already a product of the age of empire, a hybrid of a European and a North American tree: Platanus × acerifolia.