American Sycamore (Trees of Eisenhower State Park)

American Sycamore

Platanus occidentalis

Summary ⁷

Platanus occidentalis, also known as American sycamore, American planetree, occidental plane, and buttonwood, is one of the species of Platanus native to North America. It is usually called sycamore in North America, a name which can refer to other types of tree in other parts of the world. The name is derived from the Greek word πλάτανος (platanos), meaning flat, and the Latin word occidentalis meaning "of the west", and "sycamore" is deriv

Adaptation ⁸

It often is a pioneer on upland sites in the central part of its range, but it is primarily a species of bottomland and alluvial soils, also occurring on creek banks, mesic coves and lower slopes, on a wide range of soil types. It is a major pioneer species in the floodplains of large rivers and occurs on a variety of wet sites, including shallow swamps, sloughs, and wet river bottoms where soil is saturated 2-4 months during the growing season. Water dispersal often results in seed deposition on muddy flats highly conducive to germination because seed dispersal occurs when water is receding after spring floods. American sycamore is most commonly found in mixture with sweetgum, boxelder, silver and red maple, cottonwood, and willows. It is found at 0-300 (-750) meter elevation.

American sycamore can tolerate weeks of flooding, even complete submersion of seedlings, provided that the water is aerated. A significant portion of young sycamores can survive almost 2 months of continuously waterlogged soils during dormancy, but sycamore of various stages will die if the entire tree is inundated for more than two weeks during the growing season. Saplings top-killed by flooding may resprout from the root crown.

Flowers appear with the leaves in April-May or as early as late March in the South. Fruits ripen September-October (-November), usually breaking up and falling from the tree through the winter and into spring.