Instant antiques

A couple or three years ago, the city planted a row of saplings along the street behind our house. I haven't been able to identify them, but they are covered with pale creamy greenish flowers in the early spring.

I went out to see if there are any buds yet, and discovered that all the trees, now about twice our height, are covered with lichens and moss; the bark and even the wood itself is cracking, as if from extreme age and weathering.

There are a few buds here and there, at the tips of branches.

I'm wondering what went wrong, or is premature aging a characteristic of these trees? Did our weather have something to do with it? The climate? Pollution from a busy street? Come to think of it, last year, the whole lot were warming with ants. Did they cause this, or were they attracted by the growing lichens?

Questions, questions. I'll be watching the trees closely over this spring and summer.