Description
The sycamore maple is a large deciduous tree that reaches 20–35 m tall at maturity, with a broad, domed crown. On young trees, the bark is smooth and grey but becomes rougher with age and breaks up in scales, exposing the pale-brown-to-pinkish inner bark. The leaves are opposite, large, 10–25 cm long and broad with a 5–15 cm petiole, with leathery texture, palmately veined with thick veins protruding on the underside surface, with five lobes with toothed edges, and dark green in colour with whitish underside; some cultivars have purple-tinged or yellowish leaves. The leaf-stalk is frequently tinged red. The leaves are often marked with black spots or patches which are caused by the fungus Rhytisma acerinum. The monoecious yellow-green flowers are produced in spring on 10–20 cm pendulous racemes, with 20–50 flowers on each stalk. The 5–10 mm diameter seeds are paired in samaras, each seed with a 20–40 mm long wing to catch the wind and rotate when they fall; this helps them to spread further from the parent tree. The seeds are mature in autumn about 6 months after pollination.
The sycamore is able to produce suckers from roots when they are exposed to sunlight after the mature tree has fallen.
A number of species of Lepidoptera use the leaves as a food source; see Lepidoptera that feed on maples.
The name "sycamore" originally belongs to the fig species Ficus sycomorus native to southwest Asia (this is the sycamore or sycomore referred to in the Bible). The name was later applied to this species (and others; see also Platanus) by reason of the superficial similarity in leaf shape.
Read more about this topic: Acer Pseudoplatanus
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