about sycamore tree

By William Whitehouse, Mill Creek Park Naturalist, Emeritus
excerpted with permission from article published 11/74

The Sycamore is truly a giant among trees. In fact for overall bulk and sheer massiveness of bole and branches, it is generally regarded by foresters as the largest tree in the eastern United States, and indeed, as the largest deciduous tree in North America.

In the East it is surpassed in height only by the tall and beautiful Tulip Tree, and barring disease or accident, may reach the venerable age of 500 or 600 years.

By November, when most of our hardwood trees have dropped their leaves, the colorful Sycamore with its attractive mottled bark, dangling fruit clusters, and clinging dead leaves becomes more eye-catching than ever in the bare woods. Our Native American Sycamore (Platanus Occidentalis)-known also as American Plane Tree, Buttonwood, and Buttonball Tree–belongs to the Plane Tree family (Plantanaceae) and grows along stream banks and on rich, wet bottomlands or flood plains throughout the eastern states.

The dappled appearance of this tree is due to the fact that the outer bark, unable to stretch with the growth of the branches, peels off in large, brown, brittle sheets, exposing the smooth, ivory-white inner bark underneath.