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American Sycamore Tree - Platanus occidentalis
Platanaceae -- Sycamore family
Also called Western Planetree, American planetree, buttonwood, American
sycamore, and buttonball-tree |
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American Sycamore
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Platanus occidentalis is readily identifiable with broad,
maplelike leaves and a trunk and limb complexion of mixed green, tan and cream.
Some suggest it looks like camouflage. It is a member of one of the
planet's oldest clan of trees (Platanaceae) and paleobotanists have dated the
family to be over 100 million years old. Living sycamore trees can reach
ages of five hundred to six hundred years. The deciduous sycamore is fast
growing and sun-loving, "growing seventy feet in seventeen years" on a good
site. Very often it divides into two or more trunks near the ground and
its massive branches form a wide, irregular crown.
The outer bark peels away to
create a mottled patchwork of tans, whites, grays, greens and sometimes yellows.
The inner bark is usually smooth. The leaves are very large with 3 to 5
leaf lobes and are often 7 to 8 inches long and wide. These pictures were taken
on bottomlands along the west branch of the DuPage River, near Winfield IL.
Other common names are American planetree, buttonwood,
American sycamore, and buttonball-tree. It is a fast-growing and long-lived tree
of lowlands and old fields. Sycamore is valuable for timber and is also widely
planted as a shade tree because of its distinctive white, exfoliating bark and
broad, dense crown. Recently, it has become a favored species for use in
intensively cultured "biomass farms" in the Southeastern United States.
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Leaf: alternate, simple, palmately veined, 4
to 8 inches wide, ovate in shape, with three
to five lobes, margins coarsely toothed,
petiole bases encircle and enclose the buds.
Flower: Monoecious; imperfect, both male and
females are very small and appear in dense
round clusters, typically a single cluster
to a stalk, appearing with the leaves.
Fruit: A spherical multiple of achenes borne
on a 3 to 6 inch stalk. Each seed is tiny,
winged, and 1/2 inch long; maturing in
November, disseminating in late winter.
Twig: Zigzag, quite stout and orange-brown
in color; leaf scar surrounds the bud and
the stipule scar surrounds the twig;
terminal bud is absent; lateral buds are
reddish, resinous, with a single, cap-like
scale.
Bark: Thin, mottled brown, green, tan and
white; older stems are gray-brown and scaly.
The most striking feature of this tree,
often referred to as "camouflage" bark that
readily exfoliates. |
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These huge (mid-winter) Sycamores can be see at the
Morton Arboretum, near Hemlock Hill on the west
side. |
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The American sycamore is
easily recognized by its
mottled, exfoliating bark. The bark of all
trees has to yield to a growing trunk; in
the case of the Silver Maple and the
Shagbark Hickory the process is not hidden,
but the Sycamore shows the fact more openly
than any other tree. The bark of the trunk
and larger limbs flakes off in great
irregular masses leaving the surface
mottled, greenish white and gray and brown.
Sometimes the smaller limbs look as if
whitewashed. The explanation is found in the
rigid texture of the bark tissue, which
entirely lacks the expansive power common to
the bark of other trees, so it is incapable
of stretching to accommodate the growth of
the wood underneath. |
References- American Sycamore,
Platanus occidentalis, Morton Arboretum acc. 262-40*6, photographed June 6, 2007 by Bruce Marlin
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