Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore or Sycamore Maple) in Countryside Wooded Clearing
A deciduous Central European mountain species introduced to western Britain in the thirteenth century. EuropeÕs largest maple, sycamore trees are frequently encountered over 30 metres tall. On prime sites logs 1 metre thick may be expected in 80-90 years. The timber is white, and will not taint food. Wavy grained (fiddleback) wood is especially prized. In another role sycamore makes an ideal shelter tree. It is particularly resistant to salt laden wind. Excessively wet or very dry planting sites however should be avoided. Propagation is easy using freshly picked seed. Plants are shade tolerant at first but become light demanding in the post thicket stage. It 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, 10-25 cm long and broad with a 5-15 cm petiole, palmately-veined with five lobes with toothed edges, and dark green in colour; some cultivars have purple-tinged or yellowish leaves. 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.[2][3] 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), and was later applied to this species (and others; see also Platanus) by reason of the superficial similarity in leaf shape.
Size: 5380px × 3573px
Location: Strathspey Inverness-shire Highland Region Scotland UK
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., acer, aesthetic, ageing, agriculture, anchor, bark, big, building, carbon, class:, convertor, dating, deciduous, dendrochronology, dioxide, division:, family:, foliage, genus:, girth, green, habitat, kingdom:, landscaping, large, leafy, magnoliophyta, magnoliopsida, material, order:, oxygen, perennial, pictorial, plant, plantae, producer, pseudoplatanus, resource, roots, sapindaceae, sapindales, scenic, seed, shade, species:, spreading, sunlight, sycamore, tall, timber, tree, trunk, wide, width, wildlife, winged, wood, woodland, woody
