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American Sycamore Trees: History and Appearance of One of the Largest Eastern Hardwood Species

© Renie Burghardt

The American Sycamore tree, Planatus occidentalis, is native to the United States, Mexico and Central America.

Sycamores grow from southern Maine, west to Kansas and Texas, south to northern Florida and northwest to Michigan. The Sycamore's genus, Planatus, includes seven species of trees, 3 of which can be found in the United States.

Physical Appearance of the American Sycamore

American Sycamore trees not only have the largest leaves of all American trees, they are also one of the largest of the eastern hardwoods, with massive, straight trunks, and huge, spreading, crooked branches that can form a broad, open crown of 100 feet or more.

The American Sycamore averages 60 to 120 feet in height, but trees of over 160 feet have been recorded. Sycamores can live 500 years, reaching middle age at 200 to 300 years, at which point they become hollow. Yet even though they’re hollow, they are not dead, and continue to live on for many years. Fossils of sycamores, 9 to 10 million years old, have been found at Blackhawk Quarry that date to the Late Clarendonia Age.

Younger sycamore trees have mottled brown bark, peeling to expose the white under-bark. Older trees have dark brown trunks with deeply furrowed ridges. Young sycamores peel because the bark of the tree is unable to stretch as the tree grows, so it cracks, leaving white patches.

Sycamore Wood, Fruit, and Inhabitants

The wood of the sycamore is hard, and has a flaky appearance. It is used in cabinets, furniture, boxes and barrels. Native Americans often used the entire trunk of the tree to make dugout canoes, some of which were 65 feet long.

The fruit of the sycamore is a woody ball that ripens in the fall. Since sycamores have both male and female flowers, every tree has fruits on it. In the winter the woody ball breaks up into hundreds of small seeds, with tufts of brown hairs, which get scattered by the wind. A few species of birds feed on the seeds.

Raccoons, opossums, squirrels and wood ducks make homes in the cavities in the trunk and major branches of sycamores, and along the Current River, Great Blue Herons nest in the massive branches of the older trees. Sycamores grow naturally in the woods and along streams, and will also grow in cities and gardens.