Platanus occidentalis |
Platanaceae |
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American plane-tree, American sycamore, sycamore |
plane-tree family, plane-tree or sycamore family |
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Habit | Trees, to 50+ m, becoming massive; trunks straight and unbranched to great heights or low-branching or multitrunked, to 4+ m diam. | Trees, deciduous, to 50 m. Trunks 1-several, erect to prostrate. |
Bark | smooth at first, exfoliating in thin plates, exposing conspicuous mosaic of chalky white to buff or greenish new bark, becoming dark, thick, and fissured with age. |
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Leaves | blade light green, usually shallowly 3-5(-7)-lobed, occasionally unlobed, 6-20+ × 6-25+ cm (to 30 × 40 cm on sucker shoots), not especially thick; lobes of blade mostly wider than long, basal lobes usually smaller, often strongly reflexed, sinuses broad and gently concave, depth of distal sinuses mostly less than 1/2 distance from sinus to base of blade, terminal leaf lobe 1/2-2/3 length of blade; margins entire to coarsely serrate, teeth sometimes short-awned, apex usually acuminate; surfaces glabrate, abaxially often persistently tomentose along veins. |
blade palmately (0-)3-7-lobed, base cordate, truncate, or cuneate; surfaces tomentose or glabrescent. |
Inflorescences | axillary, solitary, appearing with leaves; staminate inflorescences with heads soon falling, 1-5, green, sessile, globose; pistillate with heads 1-7, terminal (and in some species lateral), sessile or pedunculate, globose, the whole much elongate and pendulous in fruit. |
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Flowers | unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same plants, very crowded, 3-4(-8)-merous, inconspicuous; perianth hypogynous, minute. |
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Achenes | 7-10 mm, basal hairs nearly as long. |
maturing in fall, often persisting until spring, tan, club-shaped, quadrangular, with terminal stylar beak, surrounded by numerous hairs; hairs basally attached, thin, unbranched, 2/3 to nearly equal to length of achene. |
Pistillate | inflorescences: heads 1(-2); fruiting heads 25-30 mm diam.; peduncle to 15 cm. |
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Axillary | buds: each hidden by swollen base of petiole. |
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2n | = 42. |
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Platanus occidentalis |
Platanaceae |
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Phenology | Flowering spring; fruiting late fall. | |
Habitat | Often abundant on alluvial soils near streams and lakes and in moist ravines, sometimes on uplands, sometimes on limestone soils, cultivated in parks and gardens and as a street tree | |
Elevation | 0-950 m (0-3100 ft) | |
Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas)
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North America; Temperate regions; Europe; and Asia |
Discussion | Of the angiospermous trees of North America, Platanus occidentalis is one of the tallest (to 50+m) and reaches the greatest trunk diameter (to 4+m). Trees with smaller and broader-than-long leaf blades, with lobes mostly entire, have been called P. occidentalis var. glabrata (Fernald) Sargent, especially in the western range of the species from Iowa to Mexico; the range of var. glabrata overlaps that of P. rzedowskii Nixon & Peale in Tamaulipas. Trees with the blade more deeply lobed, and the base long-cuneate and decurrent on the petiole, are occasional over much of the range of the species. They have been called P. occidentalis var. attenuata Sargent. The cultivated London plane-tree [Platanus ×acerifolia (Aiton) Willdenow, Platanus hybrida Broterius] will key here. It is distinguished by the lobes of its larger leaves being somewhat longer and narrower (often longer than wide), the fruiting heads one or two on each rachis, and the bark often somewhat greener. Many cultivars are available, some with deeper lobed or variegated leaves or with upright habit (F. S. Santamour Jr. 1986). It is often planted in cities because it is exceptionally well adapted as a street tree. Apparently it has not escaped in North America, where it is mostly seed-propagated. It is only occasionally reported as naturalized in Europe; there it is clonally propagated and is variously reported to be fertile or sterile. Reputedly, it is a hybrid of P. occidentalis with the Eurasian P. orientalis Linnaeus. Such a hybrid has been synthesized (F. S. Santamour Jr. 1972b). Native Americans used Platanus occidentalis for a variety of medicinal purposes, including cold and cough remedies, as well as dietary, dermatological, gynecological, respiratory, and gastrointestinal aids (D. E. Moerman 1986). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genus 1, species ca. 8 (1 genus, 3 species in the flora). The family is well known in the North American fossil record and was once more widespread in the flora (S. R. Manchester 1986). Native species of the flora area are cultivated for shade and ornament in and beyond their native ranges, as are a European species and a hybrid with many cultivars (F. S. Santamour Jr. 1986). The sycamores are known for their great size, imposing stature, smooth and light-colored bark, and tolerance of pruning. The trichomes falling from the new growth reportedly cause irritation to mucous membranes. The wood is difficult to work and therefore has limited commercial value; its resistance to splitting makes it useful for butcher blocks and buttons, hence the old vernacular name buttonwood. Phytochemical, morphologic, and anatomic characters are summarized for the family by R. N. Schwarzwalder Jr. and D. L. Dilcher (1991). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3, p. 358. |
Parent taxa | Platanaceae > Platanus | |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 999. (1753) | T. Lestiboudois ex Dumortier |
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