American Sycamore, Plane Tree, Button wood Scientific Name: Platanus occidentalis
Description: A tall tree 50-80' and in favorable situations in bottom-lands of the Ohio Basin often 150' high, with a trunk diameter of 12'. The stem often continuing straight or with slight angles to the crown. The branches generally scragged, forming an irregular long-ovoid figure. Bark dull ruddy brown, furrowed at the base of the trunk, smooth and scaly above, the scales, broad, flat, peeling off in thin, brittle layers leaving large sharply defined patches of buffish white, brown gray, or pale tan-colored inner bark exposed.
Habitat: Rich bottom lands or moist woodlands.
Range: Southern Maine south to Florida and west to southeastern Minnesota and eastern Kansas and Texas.
Type: Tree Source:Field Book of American Trees and Shrubs by F. Schuyler Mathews
Photograph: Paul Wray, Iowa State University from www.forestryimages.org. |
