Diseased tree.

Yesterday we had a local professional gardener turn up to prune our trees and a couple of bushes. We haven't many trees at present and every tree we do have is a god send in mid summer for providing us with some shade.
I planted 5 trees last year and they are still in their infancy so they won't be giving us much shade for a long while. Our house had two trees when we moved in, the tallest, a salice bianco, i don't know it's English name, was 15 m high which was a pleasure to sit under in the summer. Anyway, the gardener recommended that we remove it because it was diseased with 'Licheni,' again, sorry i don't know the English translation, and there was a possibility that it could blow down in a strong gale, so we ended up losing it

This was a before and after of the tree.

 

You have been cheated. From the picture there was nothing wrong with that tree. Lichen is just a sign that you live where the air is clean. It does no harm to trees at all. (Except maybe on fruit trees where it can harbour pests which damage the fruit).
What will happen now is that you will get a lot of new growth from the stump.

 

I agree, look healthy enough.
I think its what we call willow, (salix), if so it should grow back at quite a pace.

 

Thanks Palustris. He made a point in telling us that the tree was old, unlikely that it had been maintained and had become very susceptible to disease. Another point i failed to mention was that large areas of bark had rotted away and had been like that for the 3 years we had been here, plus if you tapped areas around the trunk of the tree you would get a hollow sound. These are things he picked up on when he surveyed our plot.

 

I would be happy to see it grow back. Maybe this could be what it needed, an extreme cut.

 

Well it probably didn't need it as such, but it would be best if you did some careful pruning of the new shoots for a few years, until it gets back to a tree like form again.

 

I agree with Pete.....Salix Alba.

 

It will grow very rapidly and you ought to get new shoots almost a couple of metres long this year.
Willow roots very, very easily so if you want to increase your sunshades just cut off a shoot or two in the autumn and simply stick them in the ground.