Sycamore

The California sycamore ranges from Baja northwards to the Sacramento Valley and up into the Sierra Nevada foothills. It has been said that Plato's class used to meet under the boughs of a plane tree. In the United States there are three species of Platanus; P. occidentalis, P. wrightii, and P. racemosa. The latter two are found in the southwestern U.S. and are closely related. Their close relationship indicates that they separated relatively recently when expanding deserts separated a once continuous woodlands that stretched from Arizona to California during the Miocene.

The California sycamore is long-lived and grows up to 100 feet tall . The tree usually has multiple trunks that can be up to five feet in diameter. These trunks are usually reclining and resting along the ground. The sycamore is an overstory/canopy species that is deciduous. It's reproductive nature is that of being dioecious with wind-pollinated flowers and wind-dispersed fruits (achenes) that can be carried for very long distances, enabling rapid re-establishment after flood damage to riparian areas. California sycamore's presence attests to the perennial abundance of near-surface water . It is an obligate phreatophyte, meaning the tree needs access to ground water within the root zone. Sycamore is usually in sites higher and drier than cottonwood and grows in coarse, porous sand and gravel. This suggests the need for adequate root aeration. If traveling along the intermittent streams of the southern coast ranges and southern California, you would notice that California sycamore is a dominant tree of these areas. It forms open woodlands along the terraces. In the northern part of the tree's range however, it's dominance diminishes.

There is a possible explanation as to why California sycamore doesn't grow in the north coast ranges even though there seems to be plenty of "suitable" habitat. The reason is the cool, wet spring season found there. It is, on average, one degree Fahrenheit warmer and there are 28 mm less rain in the southern range of the tree. The fungus (Anthracnose) is a serious and prevalent disease of the California sycamore. It causes complete spring defoliation. This fungus is promoted by cool, wet springs and is currently stressing the sycamores in counties at the northern extent of the range.

Forty to ninety-seven percent of the vertebrate species of the central valley use or depend upon the foliage of these trees. Birds use the canopy area the trees provide most heavily and therefore depend upon species such as California sycamore. Birds such as red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, Swainson's hawk, Downey and Nuttall woodpeckers and various species of warblers would be largely liminated by the absence of the upper tree stratum.

Two Travellers were walking along a bare and dusty road in the heat of the summer's day. Coming to a Plane-tree, they joyfully took shelter for a while from the burning rays of the sun in the deep shade of the spreading branches.

As they rested one remarked to his companion... "What a useless tree the Plane-tree is! It bears no fruit and is of no service to man at all"

The plane-tree interrupted him angrily "You ungrateful creature" it cried out "you come and take shelter under me from the scorching sun, and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool shade of my foiliage, you abuse me and call me good for nothing !

Many a service is met with ingratitude.

The plane-tree of Greek, Roman, and Hebrew legends was called Platanus. Botanically, this plane-tree is known as Platanus orientalis Linnaeus. The meaning of its ancient name is lost.

In The Herbal (1633 ed.), John Gerard wrote, "The Plane is a great tree, having very long and far spreading boughs casting a wonderful broad shadow...highly commended and esteemed among the old Romans...it beareth his name of the breadth." But Gray's Manual of Botany (1950) offers "The ancient name, from the Greek platys, broad, apparently referring to the large leaves."

Legend says that Hippocrates II (Fifth Century BCE) taught medicine under a wide plane-tree on the island of Kos in the Mediterranean. Pliny the Elder recorded a famous plane-tree grew in the walks at the Academy of Athens and a celebrated plane[grew in Lycia. Perhaps the most notorious belonged to Caligula.

A third plane-tree is connected with the Emperor Gaius Caligula, who on an estate at Velitrae was impressed by the 'flooring' of a single plane-tree and the horizontal branches serving as seats; he held a banquet in the tree, the leaves provided partial awning in a dining room spacious enough to hold fifteen guests and the servants. Caligula called this dining-room his 'eyrie'." (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book XII, pre-79 CE, trans. John F. Healy)