Platanus orientalis L. Platanaceae subsp insularis or Platanus insularis Kotschy ex Koehne. Distribution: Greek Islands. In 400 BC, Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, taught medical students under a plane tree on the island of Cos off the coast of mainland Greece. There is a huge tree there, about 500 years old, with a circumference of 12 metres, which bears a sign that it is the original tree. It may well, however, be a descendant. Seed from this tree was taken to the National Botanic Garden in New York by the distinguished American neurologist, Wilder Penfield. Cuttings from the resulting seedlings were sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and from there one was donated to the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1965. A second tree that came from the same source via the Chelsea Physic Garden was also planted in the College lawn in 1965, but removed after a number of years. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
