MIREILLE’S MUSINGS: The Vanishing "Platanes"

August 31, 2011

Vincent Van Gogh must be crying in his grave: where are all the “platanes” going?

Those of you who have traveled on the superb Canal du Midi may know that more than 10% of those gorgeous plane trees made famous by artists and particularly by Van Gogh are plagued by a parasite, a micro mushroom that kills them slowly but surely.

The canal is the oldest in Europe, a masterpiece of French engineering built over 14 years by 10,000 men and women under Louis XIV, and lined with the gorgeous trees with leaves that give shade and trunks that are a beauty with the various colors of the bark. People from all over the world have taken trips on the canal since the 1970s, when it was no longer used for freight. A treat that may end soon.

It started quietly in 2006 with a small town near Carcassonne alerted that a plague had affected over 100 of the “platanes” and that a specialized company would come and cut them, unroot them and incinerate them. Plague it was and plague it is, spreading fast all over the canal. The parasite destroys the leaves first, they turn brown, and the tree dies in less than six years. No cure and no clue at all on how to deal with this plague. Research started in 1929 in New Jersey of all places, where Americans discovered the parasite. It came to France in the GIs’ wooden munitions cases...yes, it traveled to Europe during WWII, reaching Naples and Marseille, and now the whole PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur) is affected. Once the parasite reached the canal river banks, the epidemic got out of hand, and in 2010 sixty infected areas were spotted. And it is spreading. Biking near St-Remy the other day, we took a small road where the sad picture was in effect: trees almost bare in late August with a green line painted on the trunk of each, which means the tree will be cut soon as there is no hope to save it. An expert revealed that when the disease is identified it’s already too late. So, from Toulouse to Sète about 2,000-4,000 trees will be cut soon.

Seeing a sick tree makes me cry. Plane trees are considered a cathedral of greenery. Who has not been moved driving or biking on the roads with these arched vaults that protect us from the heat and sun and let some light filter in as if there were thousands of stained glass windows? Now the canal could lose its treasure of shade. The magic of those roads and river banks shall be lost forever if the plane trees disappear, and they are at a disconcerting speed. Will there be a magician to save this incurable plague?