Common names are Western plane, sycamore, or buttonwood. Click here for more photographs
This tree is the sycamore of North America. It is also known as buttonwood and as the American plane, western plane, occidental plane. Its native range covers much of the eastern United States, where it forms the largest broadleaf tree, with trunks of massive girth. It is a fast growing tree of river valleys and damp places, of fairly coarse appearance and with relatively weak and easily broken wood.
It is rarely seen in London or Britain (it is listed by one supplier in The Plant Finder). Though it is winter hardy it is seriously affected by anthracnose, made worse by cold weather and frost damage in spring. Specimens tend to survive for a few years and die without making a tree. It has been regularly planted in Britain since the 16th century, generally without much success. There are accounts of it being grown in Britain as coppice specimens during the 19th century, presumably for the canes. Otherwise, young trees generally survive for a few years only.
It is not much grown even in the US where it is native, the London plane being preferred as an ornamental. Its faults as an ornamental tree are various; weak wood and a susceptibility to anthracnose being among the main ones. It is sometimes planted in the US for timber however. The wood is used on a small scale for furniture and veneering.
Further accounts of the tree and pictures of it, its foliage et.c. can be found at several sites on the web, mostly dealing with native plants of North America.
It is a parent of the hybrid London plane, and some forms of the London plane can be seen to be quite close to it.
Young trees have been seen planted out at Kew Gardens, but have not been seen there in subsequent years, so the anthracnose damage would seem to be a continuing problem.
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31-Jan-2007