American Sycamore
Platanus occidentalis L.
AKA: planetree, American planetree, buttonball tree
American Sycamores are fast-growing trees that reach impressive heights and sizes. They thrive in moist environments, are tolerant of flooding and urban pollution, and are often found along riverbanks and in cities.
Fun facts about sycamores:
- They are fast-growing, 3-6 feet a year, and can live several hundred years.
- Their leaves, toothed like a saw, are some of the largest of any tree in North America.
- They are used to make furniture, butcher blocks, and musical instruments.
- Their distinctive seed balls – “buttonballs “ – provide food for birds.
- It might take 9 adults to hold hands around the largest sycamores, which can have a circumference of over 40 feet.
- Older trees often have hollow trunks, providing homes for raccoons, squirrels, bats, screech owls, wood ducks and more.
- The Buttonwood Agreement, the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange, was signed under an American sycamore tree on Wall Street in 1792.