PLATANACE/E PLANE TREE FAMILY 



SYCAMORE. BUTTONWOOD 



Pldtanus occidentalis. 

 Platanus from platus, broad, on account of the shape of the leaf. 



Common throughout the United States. Found along the banks 

 of streams and on rich bottom lands. Seventy to one hundred and 

 twenty feet in height, often divided near the ground into several sec- 

 ondary trunks, very free from branches ; spreading limbs at the top 

 make an irregular, open head. Easily recognized by its mottled ex- 

 foliating bark. Roots fibrous. The trunks of large trees often hollow. 



Bark. Dark reddish brown, broken into oblong plate-like scales, 

 higher on the tree smooth and light gray ; separates freely into thin 

 plates which peel off and leave the surface pale yellow, or white, or 

 greenish. Branchlets at first pale green, coated with thick pale to- 

 mentum, later dark green and smooth, finally become light gray or 

 light reddish brown. 



Wood. Light brown, tinged with red ; heavy, weak, difficult to 

 split. Largely used for furniture and interior finish of houses, butch- 

 ers' blocks. Sp. gr., 0.5678; weight of cu. ft., 35.39 Ibs. 



Winter Buds. Large, conical, three-scaled, form in summer 

 within the petiole of the full grown leaf. The inner scales enlarge 

 with the growing shoot. There is no terminal bud. 



Leaves. Alternate, palmately nerved, broadly-ovate or orbicular, 

 four to nine inches long, truncate or cordate or wedge-shaped at 

 base, decurrent on the petiole. Three to five-lobed by broad shallow 

 sinuses rounded in the bottom ; lobes acuminate, toothed, or entire, 

 or undulate. They come out of the bud plicate, pale green coated 

 with pale tomentum ; when full grown are bright yellow green above, 

 paler beneath. In autumn they turn brown and wither before falling. 

 Petioles long, abruptly enlarged at base and inclosing the buds. 

 Stipules with spreading, toothed borders, conspicuous on young 

 shoots, caducous. 



263 



