Nothing to sneeze at: one of Melbourne’s most-loathed trees wins a second act

Lauren Henderson is one of eight furniture designers and makers who has worked with wood from a felled plane tree. Photograph: Nicole Williams

Long the darlings of municipal landscaping, London plane trees line boulevards from New York to Johannesburg. In Australian cities people have lived, worked and sneezed alongside them for generations. Revered by urban planners for their good looks, impressive carbon sequestering capabilities and hardiness, the hybrid plant (made from American sycamore and oriental plane) is an optimum city tree – in measured doses.

But while their verdant majesty in summer and handsome silhouettes in winter are widely admired, their reign of eye-watering, throat-scratching terror throughout spring has made them notorious.