SAPINDACEAE - - Soapberry Family

* Acer pseudoplatanus Linnaeus — Sycamore Maple

* this species is not native to the United States

Sycamore Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), a native of Europe and western Asia, is a small to medium-size tree to 98 feet, with a dense, broadly rounded crown, and an unusually short trunk branching close to the ground. It has been cultivated in North America since colonial days, but is not as common as the Norway maple. I could not locate sycamore maple in the current listing of National Champion Trees. It is one of the few maples that can be tolerant of salt spray and, therefore, is often planted near seashores. The specific epithet "pseudoplatanus" literally means false planetree or false sycamore. Platanus is the genus name of Sycamore or Planetree.

Separating Characteristics

The leaves are 5-lobed, dark green above, shiny, with prominent sunken veins, margins with short, coarse teeth. Flowers are yellow and produced in narrow, hanging, many-flowered clusters to 5 1/2 inches long. Fruits usually at a narrow angle of less than 90°. The bark seems pretty distinctive to me, at least distinct from other maples. In fact, the bark more closely resembles a buckeye or horsechestnut (Aesculus sp.), it is dark gray, cracking into squares with curling or peeling edges.

Habitat

Suburban woodlands; native of Europe. Planted widely in our area as a street and yard tree, especially in the mountains. It may be naturalized more extensively in our area; northward it is a noxious weed tree but it is not as widespread as Norway maple.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

Range

Sycamore maple is widely scattered from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia south to North Carolina, northward to Illinois and Ontario, then skipping over to British Columbia.

The range of Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore Maple)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].