The Tree That Was Running Late

This Plane tree has only recently started to get its leaves whereas all the other Plane trees around it had theirs weeks and weeks ago. I was worried that this one was dead as there have been a lot this past year.

Suddenly a couple of weeks ago this one started sprouting leaves but not in the normal way. The leaves are all coming straight out of the trunk and and only on the most inner parts of the branches, very strange. It's like the tree has forgotten how to do this.