Sycamore – Platanus occidentalis
The magnificent sycamore sends serpentine roots clasping rocks along creeks and rivers, giving its eloquent form anchor to gracefully towering arches, creating a tunnel of shade. In much of the eastern and southern United States Platanus occidentalis, the American Planetree best known as sycamore, stands as sentinel over cool, moist banks of flowing water. It is one of the more massive and tall deciduous tree in North America.
Growing to a height of 100-170 ft., its large trunk may be 10 – 11 ft. in diameter. If its sheer size is not enough to distinguish it from all other trees, its unique bark makes it instantly recognized. The tree is marked by large sections of smooth blue-gray, yellowish, or near-white inner bark, exposed by the peeling of thin, irregular sections of outer bark, becoming lighter toward the treetops. After a spring rain, the exposed inner-bark turns bright green, producing food to give the fast-growing tree an extra surge of energy.
Sycamore, P. occidentalis, has a range extending from southeastern New Hampshire and northern Vermont, south to Florida and Texas, north through eastern Kansas and Nebraska to the northern shore of Lake Ontario. In days of colonial settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, the hollow trunks of large, old sycamores were cut into sections and used for storing grain and other perishables.
Platanus, the classical name of the planetree, is represented by six or seven species of large deciduous trees widely distributed in southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, eastern and western North America, and Mexico. The oriental Planetree, P. orientalis, occurs wild in Southeastern Europe and western Asia Minor. Since ancient times, it has been the primary shade tree planted in the eastern Mediterranean region and western Asia.
Nearly all classical writers on natural subjects mention the planetree as provider of shade and shelter. Pliny claims that no other tree protects so well from the heat of summer and tells us that in his day, (A.D. 23-79), planetrees were planted for shade by all of Athens’ public schools.
Aristotle and Plato taught their students under sheltered groves of Oriental Plane-trees. Homer frequently mentions the “Shady planetree.” Public buildings, walkways, and roads of ancient Greece and Persia, were lined with magnificent planetrees to provide cool shade from summer heat.
Sycamores and their relatives have important interaction with humans. What is more healing than large trees shading hot streets and providing life in a desert of pavement?