The unmistakable mottled bark of the London plane tree, Platanus × acerifolia. This - as a genus - is a very new tree: it was discovered in the mid C17th by John Tradescant the younger at his gardens in Vauxhall, and seems to be an accidental hybrid between Platanus occidentalis, the American sycamore, and the Oriental plane, imaginatively called Platanus orientalis. So even if I associate it with London itself - over 50% of trees on London's streets are plane trees - and even though it technically must count as an import (like so many trees in California), it's hardly an indigenous species from some other part of the world.
Honestly, it's remarkable that we were able to go out on a walk at all today - and even so, I was dragging my weary and exhausted feet. However happy and fortunate I am to have had my second Pfizer shot, I had just about every possible side effect - soreness, body aches, head aches, and worst of all, deep chills and shaking. Wearing off now, but, ouch.
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