The sycamore tree (in the family Sapindaceae) is a tree of my childhood and one that I was happy to see on my last visit back to the UK. It’s a fast growing deciduous tree with a crown rounded in shape. The sycamore tree can reach a height of around 18 metres, although some sources say that it can reach 35 metres tall. The native range of the sycamore is north-west to central Europe, although it isn’t native to the UK. The binomial name for the sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, has the following meaning:

• Acer-the Latin word for maple trees
• Pseudoplatanus-‘pseudo’ means false, while ‘platanus’ refers to its similarity to a tree in the Platanus genus.

The leaves of the sycamore tree are large and palmately lobed with between three and five lobes per leaf. They are 7-22cm long and 8-22cm wide with toothed margins (leaf margins).

Inflorescences are yellow-green in colour and appear in pendulous racemes with or after the leaves appear in spring. In these racemes, seperate male and female flowers clustered together in groups. The fruit is a samara that can reach up to 5 cm across.

The preferred habitat for the sycamore is full sun to light shade on well-drained, fertile soil. It is happy in most soil and acid, neutral or alkaline pH. The tree can be sensitive to heat, but it is salt tolerant so can be grown near the coast. In some areas, the sycamore is considered a weed, precisely because its can tolerate a range of conditions, so be careful about the choice of planting location.

Propagation of the straight species is by seed. There are many cultivars, including ‘Autopurpureum’, Brilliantissimum’ and ‘Niztii’.

I do like this tree, although it is a tree of Europe in my head. What I mean by this is that I don’t really see it as a tree sitting well in an an Australian garden situation due to the climate (it can get hot here) and plants that don’t like the heat can be hard to keep alive, never mind thriving, if there is an aspect of the climate that they don’t like. There are better species for the job, which saves time, energy, water and money in the garden, which is no bad thing. While a lovely tree, it is one that I appreciate more when I go back to the UK or Europe more for not seeing it in Australia.