348 TREES IN WINTER 



SYCAMORE 



Buttonwood, Buttonball, Plane Tree. 

 Platanus occidentalis L. 



HABIT — A large tree 50-100 ft. In height with a trunk diameter of 

 3-8 ft., in the bottom lands of tlie lower Ohio and Mississippi valleys 

 reaching occasionally a height of 170 ft. with a trunk diameter of 

 10-11 ft., the largest tree of the New England forest; with an erect 

 or often declined trunk very gradually tapering and continuous into 

 the top (see habit picture) or branched near the base into two or 

 three secondary trunks (see bark picture) forming an open, irregular 

 or rounded wide-spreading head; branchlets scraggly, often in tufts 

 with dead twigs not infrequent. (See low cross-branch in bark picture). 



BARK — Dark brown, at the base of older trunks shallowly furrowed 

 into broad ridges which are broken into small oblong thick plate-like 

 scales; higher up on the trunk peeling off in large thin plates, exposing 

 conspicuous areas of the whitish, yellowish or greenish inner bark. 



TWIGS — Slender, rather shiny, smooth, yellowish-brown, generally 

 zigzag, swollen at the nodes, rounded or with decurrent ridges from 

 the bundle-scars; medullary rays conspicuous in sectioned twig. 

 LENTICELS— pale, minute. PITH— thick. 



L.EAF-SCARS — Alternate, generally 2-ranked, sometimes appearing 

 more ranked; narrow, projecting, nearlv surrounding the bud, more or 

 less swollen at the bundle-scars. STIPULE-SCARS — encircling twig. 

 BUNDLE-SCARS — conspicuous, dark, generally raised, 5-10 or more in 

 single curved line. 



BFDS — Terminal bud absent; lateral buds generally large, conical, 

 5-10 mm. long, occasionally shorter, blunt-pointed, smooth, dark reddish- 

 brown, divergent. BUD-SCALES — a single scale visible, forming a cap 

 to the bud, second scale green, gummy, innermost scale covered with 

 long rusty hairs. 



FRUIT — Spherical heads 2.5-4 cm. in diameter, on long stalks mostly 

 solitary or seldom in 2's, composed of small hairy 1-seeded nutlets. 

 The heads hang on the tree till spring. 



COMPARISONS — The native Sycamore [Platamis occidentaUsI is closely 

 related to the Oriental Sycamore \_Platanns orientaUs L.] which is 

 extensively planted as an ornamental tree. It bears its fruiting heads 

 singly or rarely in 2's. while the Oriental Sycamore has its fruiting 

 heads in clusters of 2-4. The whitewashed appearance of the upper 

 limbs, the single cap-like scale of its bud, which is nearly surrounded 

 by the leaf-scar, present characters which prevent the Sycamores from 

 being confused with any other trees. 



DISTRIBUTION — Near streams, river bottoms, and low, damp woods; 

 sometimes in dryer places. Ontario; south to Florida; west to Min- 

 nesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — apparently restricted to York county; 

 New Hampshire — Merrimac valley towards the coast; along the Con- 

 necticut as far as Walpole; Vermont — scattering along the river shores, 

 quite abundant along the Hoosac in Pownal; Massachusetts — occa- 

 sional; Connecticut and Rhode Island — rather common. 



AVOOD — Reddish-brown with light somewhat yellowish sapwood. 

 heavy, tough, hard, not very strong, coarse-grained, difficult to split and 

 work; is used in manufacture of tobacco boxes, crates, butchers' blocks, 

 ox-yokes and when cut quartering is used for inside finishing of 

 buildings and for furnture. 



