Plant · P-149

American Sycamore

Platanus occidentalis

American Sycamore grows faster and fatter than any other native hardwood - champion specimens exceed 11 feet across the trunk - and its heavy, constant leaf and bark litter makes it a genuine mulch and biomass engine if the mess is treated as a yield rather than a nuisance. It needs consistently wet ground, doing best at the low end of a drainage, a pond overflow, or a swale sump; on dry upland clay it scorches and declines. It is one of the few large trees that tolerates growing near black walnut, a genuine convenience given how few plants share that tolerance, and deer largely leave it alone. In a hot, dry climate its fruit and leaf hairs can trigger hay-fever-like symptoms, so it is best planted downwind of anywhere people sleep or work outdoors.