Acer pseudoplatanus Seeds | Sycamore Maple
LATIN NAME: Acer pseudoplatanus
COMMON NAME: Sycamore Maple
Plant Profile
Sycamore maple is a large deciduous tree of twenty to thirty-five metres with five-lobed palmate leaves, greenish yellow flowers in hanging racemes and paired winged seeds that spin as they fall. The bark breaks into rectangular plates that peel away to show a paler layer beneath.
It is native to the mountains of central Europe and the Caucasus, and it was planted across Britain and Scandinavia from the sixteenth century for shelter and for timber. In Britain it is now the commonest large tree in many towns, and in the wet west it seeds into woodland so freely that conservation bodies treat it as a threat to native ground flora.
Science & Biotechnology
The tree is one of the most shade-tolerant of the European maples when young, which is why it regenerates under a closed canopy and then outgrows the shrubs around it. Its seedlings also tolerate salt spray and air pollution better than most broadleaves, and that combination explains its spread along roads and in coastal towns.
Sooty bark disease is the tree’s particular weakness. The fungus Cryptostroma corticale colonises the bark of drought-stressed sycamores and produces a black spore layer under the peeling plates, and the spores cause a hypersensitivity pneumonia in people who handle the wood. Outbreaks follow hot dry summers, and a tree that dies of it should not be cut for firewood without a mask.
Uses & Benefits
The wood is pale, hard and close-grained, and it takes a fine finish, so it goes into furniture, flooring, kitchenware and turned bowls. It is also the traditional timber for the backs and ribs of stringed instruments in Britain, where it is sold as plane or as harewood when it has been stained.
The tree is planted for shelterbelts and as a street tree, and it is one of the few large species that will grow in exposed coastal ground. It is not a good garden tree for a small plot, since the roots are shallow and the seedlings appear everywhere, and the honeydew from the aphids on its leaves coats anything parked beneath it.
Growing from Seed
Sow the samaras as soon as they are ripe, in autumn, and leave the pots outdoors; the seed needs cold moisture and germinates in spring. Cover lightly, since the wing lifts the seed out of the compost and a deep covering traps it.
Plant out at one or two years in sun or part shade, and expect a metre of growth a year for the first decade. The tree coppices strongly and regrows from a cut stump, which is why clearing it from a wood takes more than one cut. It tolerates wind and salt but not waterlogging, and it does not like being transplanted once it is large.
Our Take
A fast, tolerant, useful tree that has become a weed of British woodland, and one to plant only where its seedlings can be controlled. Good timber, bad neighbour.
Related Reading
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