Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Platanus racemosa

Platanus wrightii

California sycamore, western sycamore

Arizona sycamore
Habit Trees, to 15(-25) m, rather massive; trunks sometimes straight and erect, more commonly irregular, reclining, or prostrate with branches irregular and sometimes near ground, to 2+m diam. Trees, to 25 m; trunks straight and erect to inclined or basally reclining or prostrate, to 1.2(-2) m diam., lower branches becoming thick, contorted.
Leaves

blade dark green, 3-5-lobed, 10-25 × 10-25 cm, rather thick;

lobes of blade mostly longer than wide, basal lobes usually somewhat smaller and spreading, not reflexed, sinuses broad and deeply concave, depth of distal sinuses about 1/3-2/3 distance from sinus to base of blade, terminal leaf lobe ca. 1/3-2/3 length of blade;

margins entire to remotely serrulate, apex acute to acuminate, sometimes rounded;

surfaces abaxially persistently tomentose, adaxially glabrescent.

blade dark green, deeply 3-5(-7)-lobed, 9-25 × 9-30 cm, rather thick;

lobes of blade much longer than wide, basal lobes usually smaller and spreading, not reflexed, sinuses broad and very deeply concave, depth of distal sinuses equal or greater than distance from sinus to base of blade, terminal leaf lobe about 2/3 or more length of blade;

margins entire to serrulate, apex acute to acuminate;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrescent.
Achenes

7-10 mm, basal hairs about 2/3 length of achenes.

5-8 mm, basal hairs about 2/3 or equal to length of achenes.
Pistillate

inflorescences: heads (1-)2-7; fruiting heads 20-25(-30) mm diam., lateral ones sessile; fruiting rachis to 25 cm.

inflorescences: heads (1-)2-4; fruiting heads to 20 mm diam., lateral heads sessile or pedunculate, peduncle often eventually obscured by maturing achenes; fruiting rachis to 25 cm.
2n

= 42.

= 42.

Platanus racemosa

Platanus wrightii
Phenology Flowering spring; fruiting late fall. Flowering spring; fruiting late fall.
Habitat Streamsides and moist, rocky canyons, often abundant Often abundant in riparian forests, especially in montane canyons, extending into deserts along streams and near springs, and cultivated
Elevation 0-1500 m (0-4900 ft) 600-2000+m (2000-6600+ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The Eurasian oriental plane, Platanus orientalis Linnaeus, is sometimes cultivated and would key to this or the next species. It has deeply lobed, serrate leaves resembling Acer saccharinum and A. macrophyllum, and the fruiting rachis bears three to six heads.

Native Americans used infusions prepared from the plants of Platanus orientalis medicinally as a panacea, and from the bark for indisposition (D. E. Moerman 1986).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

L. D. Benson (1943) reported intermediates between Platanus wrightii and P. racemosa in southern California. He reduced P. wrightii to P. racemosa var. wrightii (S. Watson) L. Benson. Most authors have retained that taxon at the specific level because of its more deeply lobed, more glabrate leaves and its often pedunculate fruiting heads. Very low yields of germinable seeds were obtained from crosses of P. wrightii and P. racemosa with P. occidentalis (F. S. Santamour Jr. 1972b).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Platanaceae > Platanus Platanaceae > Platanus
Sibling taxa
P. occidentalis, P. wrightii
P. occidentalis, P. racemosa
Name authority Nuttall: N. Amer. Sylv. 1: 47. (1842) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 10: 349. (1875)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers