Sycamore leaves in autumn

Platanus occidentalis, American planetree

I like sycamore trees in the fall when their leaves begin to change color. They look like someone has tied colored handkerchiefs to all the branches -- or so it seems to me. Each leaf is so large that it makes its own splash of color.

I found this sycamore growing in my garden one wet spring about a dozen years ago. It was just a seedling. Sycamore seeds like to fall onto mud flats and take root, and "mud flat" describes my garden that spring. We dug the little tree up and planted it on the far end of our little acreage.

(The rainy season that year was interesting. A killdeer made its nest in my muddy washed-out garden, and she had a hissy-fit every time I came anywhere near it. I felt bad about making her fake a broken wing all the time so I just let her have that end of the garden for a while. But now, back to the sycamore tree...)

I estimate the current height of the sycamore tree at 35-40 feet. I'm not real good at estimating height, but it's a good 15-20 feet above the power lines.

Ah, yes, the power lines. They are going to be a problem. We underestimated the spread that the tree would develop and the power company will want to trim back its branches on that side. We'll have to let them do it. One good thing about it -- sycamores aren't a densely branched tree.

Sycamores may grow up to 70 feet in 20 years. They are long-lived trees, often living over 300 years. They often reach 100 feet in height and they may be even wider than they are tall!

Sycamores in Autumn

Platanus occidentalis: Tall native tree of the Eastern bottomlands

The American sycamore is a common native tree of the eastern United States, easy to recognize even at a distance. Here are some characteristics of the adult Platanus occidentalis:

• massive trunk and branches
• great height
• uniquely mottled bark color on the lower trunks and branches
• peeling outer bark exposing the light-colored inner bark on younger (upper and outer) branches
• large leaves
• dangling ball-shaped fruits, especially visible in winter

Common names for the American sycamore include "buttonball" and "buttonwood", which refer to the sycamore fruit.

Once you learn what a sycamore looks like, you'll notice it in many of the bottomlands of the eastern USA. Its natural range encompasses every state from Maine to Florida and west, as far as eastern Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

Sycamore trees of the Mississippi and lower Ohio river valleys are some of the largest of the species. Here are several nice specimens, photographed last week in northeastern Christian County, Kentucky.

In my opinion, sycamores are not suited for the area of your yard that's near the house. They shed large leaves throughout the season, and the fruits are prickly. Also, they have a lot of surface roots that interfere with lawn mowing. However, if you have a remote area that doesn't really need a groomed look, they're beautiful, fast-growing trees. Just make sure you have room for them.


Related:
Some nice images of the sycamore
Platanus occidentalis fact sheet
Wikipedia sycamores page

Swamp White Oak: Fast-Growing and Moisture-Loving

Quercus bicolor

Large swamp white oak in the Clay Plain forest
(a floodplain of the Hubbardton River in Vermont.)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo

Swamp white oak is a native tree of many of the northeastern States, particularly the northern Ohio River valley and adjacent areas. (For a county by county map of where swamp white oak grows naturally, visit the Quercus bicolor page on the USDA/NRCS Plants Database, and click on the state that interests you.)

I was excited a few years ago when I finally spotted a swamp white oak. A nice specimen grows near a little creek at an I-24 rest-stop, very near the Ohio River in Illinois. It is growing in exactly the sort of place swamp white oak likes and needs. It prefers a damp site and will tolerate flooding.

It's very important for swamp white oak to have an acidic soil. A soil pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is perfect according to Gary Hightshoe's Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Urban and Rural America*. The USDA/NSRC Plant Guide for Swamp White Oak suggests a soil pH of less than 7.2.

If you're thinking of planting this tree, get a soil test of the potential site through your local university extension office. And if you learn that your soil is alkaline, don't plant a swamp white oak.

A swamp white oak grown in alkaline soil will develop a condition called iron chlorosis. It will look ugly, grow poorly, and die much younger than it should. Iron chlorosis can be treated with various chemicals --but why set yourself up for all those problems?

The swamp white oak also requires soil that is in the finer half of the spectrum -- that is, it likes silts, clays, and loams much more than coarsely textured sandy or gravelly soils.

In the right place, Quercus bicolor will grow as much as 2 feet per year. It will have characteristics one expects of an oak:

1. It will be resistant to wind and ice damage.
2. It will be a nice shade tree.
3. It will be a great tree for wildlife, providing food to a wide range of species.

It would be easy to transplant a young swamp white oak if you find one in the wild. Swamp white oak has a spreading, shallow-growing root system.

Dig it up with as much dirt as possible using "ball and burlap" techniques to keep the soil in place. Plant it at the same depth that it was previously growing. The cool weather of spring or fall is the best time. Or collect the acorns in the fall and plant them yourself instead of relying on Mother Nature.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

*Bibliographical info for Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Urban and Rural America by Gary L. Hightshoe is provided at the bottom of this column.

Typical ten-year heights of some native trees

Estimates of how fast some native trees will grow

10-14 Feet...

• American Beech - Fagus grandifolia
• Hackberry - Celtis occidentalis
• Shagbark Hickory - Carya ovata
• Kentucky Coffeetree - Gymnocladus dioicus
• Bur Oak - Quercus macrocarpa
• White Oak - Quercus alba
• Ohio Buckeye - Aesculus glabra
• Yellow Buckeye - Aesculus octandra

15-19 Feet...

• Ohio Buckeye - Aesculus glabra
• Serviceberry - Amelanchier canadensis
• Pin Oak - Quercus palustris
• Red Oak - Quercus coccinea
• Yellow Poplar - Liriodendron tulipifera
• Black Walnut - Juglans nigra
• Sweet Gum - Liquidambar styraciflua
• Washington Hawthorn - Crategus phaenopyrum

20-24 Feet...

• Red Maple - Acer rubrum
• Basswood - Tilia americana
• Sugar Maple - Acer saccharum
• Eastern White Pine - Pinus strobus
• American Elm - Ulmus americana

25-29 Feet...

• Green Ash - Fraximus pennsylvanica
• CucumberTree - Magnolia acuminata
• Silver Maple - Acer saccharinum

30-34 Feet...

• Sycamore - Platanus occidentalis

50 feet...

• Black Willow - Salix nigra

Sources of this information...

• Chart from the Morton Arboreum, Lisle, Illinois, reprinted in Trees for American Gardens by Donald Wyman (Copyright 1951 by the McMillan Company, New York.)

• Native Trees for Urban and Rural America by Gary L. Hightshoe. (Copyright 1978 by the Iowa State University Research Foundation, Ames, Iowa 50011.)

Related post: How fast will a tree grow?

Green ash: Beautiful, fast growing tree in peril

Fraxinus pennsylvanica

Green ash blossoms

Our green ash tree is blooming, and its blossoms are interesting in their own way, though not as flashy and visible as the ornamentals and fruits. In fact, an unaccustomed eye might not even notice these strange, dark little flowers.

This summer, the seeds will appear in clusters. They are eaten by songbirds such as cardinals, purple finches, and cedar waxwings, by quail and wild turkey, and by rodents and some other small mammals. Green ashes are not considered an important wildlife tree, though they certainly have some wildlife value.

One of the virtues of green ashes is that they are fast-growing but have a fairly long life compared to many fast-growing trees. Their lifespan can range from 100 to 150 years.

Our green ash is a large mature tree. It has grown in an open, moist area with no other tree nearby to affect its spread, and it has a truly beautiful shape. It has suffered ice damage in a couple of bad storms we've had, but we pruned its broken branches and it still looks good.

However, I think that it is partially hollow and that yellow-jackets have built a nest in it! I see them flying up to a certain area of the trunk and then disappearing.

Ash trees of all types are in grave peril from an exotic insect that is making its way across the nation -- the emerald ash borer. Apparently it was brought in from China in wood pallets. Much information about this tree killing pest is available on the internet. Probably the best thing you can do to protect your ash trees is to avoid bringing ash firewood onto your property.

I haven't heard that the emerald ash borer has reached Kentucky yet, but it is probably just a matter of time because it is in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. I read that the National Forest Service has stockpiled ash seed just in case the emerald ash borer wipes out the entire U.S. ash population. Let us hope it doesn't come to that, but it doesn't look good.

Our green ash last September

Red Blossoms of Silver Maple

Acer saccharinum, water maple, soft maple

Flower of silver maple

Silver maple is one of the first trees to bloom in springtime. Its bright red blossoms are small, but they are a welcome spark of color in the landscape.

The flower buds and flowers of the silver maple are eaten by squirrels in early spring when food is scarce.

Silver maple blossoms

The silver maple's seeds are the largest of all the maple seeds, and are an important food source for squirrels as well as a large number of songbirds, gamebirds, and wild animals . Even bears, deer, elk, moose, and mountain sheep will feast on silver maple seeds. The seeds appear in spring at about the same time the leaves do.

In nature, the silver maple often chooses to grow in moist bottom lands or at the edges of rivers and lakes. In Kentucky it may be found growing with willows, sycamores, hackberries, cottonwoods and river birch.

The silver maple in the photo below is growing near Kentucky Lake in western Kentucky. In this location, the tree probably stands in water occasionally, but the silver maple can survive some flooding.

Silver maples are often sold in garden centers as a fast-growing shade tree. They are prone to storm damage because of their weak, brittle branches, and they are a short-lived tree that will mature at 50 to 75 years and slip into decline soon thereafter. The silver maple is well-known for clogging drains with its water-seeking roots.

Think carefully about where you want to plant this tree! We have three silver maples near our house, planted by a former owner. We've seen some severe storm damage in them several times. Fortunately -- so far! -- none of the large limbs have hit the house.

One of the trees is very large and probably at full maturity. When its health begins to decline (which will be soon,) we will be forced to remove it because of its proximity to the house.

Silver maple flowering at Kentucky Lake, near Fenton

Three Fast Growing Trees with Problems

Think twice before planting these trees!

As America gears up for the spring planting season, stores and nurseries across the nation will stock millions of trees. Some of them will be labeled, "Fast growing," and those are words that bring joy to the hearts of tree-planters. Be careful! Here are three fast-growing trees that you may regret planting.

1. Bradford Pear/Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'

Bradford Pear image by Britt Slattery,
US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This tree is beautiful in three seasons --  spring, summer, and fall. It has abundant white blossoms early in spring, and its shiny green foliage turns red in autumn.

In winter, the Bradford Pear is not so attractive because its broken parts are no longer hidden by its leaves. And this tree does typically have a lot of broken parts. The dense branching, narrow branch crotches and weak wood cause it to break in wind, snow, ice -- and even heavy rain!

I have personally seen dozens of Bradford Pears severely damaged by weather events. Often the whole tree splits apart and an entire quarter or half of the tree tears away and falls to the ground.

If the tree lasts more than ten years without a disfiguring loss of branches or a partially dead crown, count yourself lucky. Bradford pears are very short-lived (30 years, max.)

2. Mimosa Tree/Albizia julibrissin

Wikimedia image by Simon Garbutt (SiGarb)

Mimosa trees (also called silk trees) have fragrant pink blossoms in summer, and their lacy foliage and multi-stemmed growth has a tropical look. It is a very fast-growing tree (3 feet or more per year.)

Mimosas grow all over the southeastern United States, where they have naturalized after being introduced as an ornamental in 1745. They are an invasive species; that is, they reproduce so freely and rapidly in the wild that they displace native species. That alone is good reason not to plant them. Mimosa seedlings and suckers will invade any part of your yard that's not regularly mowed and any flower bed that's not frequently weeded. They will also invade your neighbor's yard and flower beds!

 Besides being extremely invasive, the mimosa is a problem tree because of its weak, brittle wood which often breaks in storms.  It is vulnerable to a number of insects, and it is very short lived (15 to 20 years.)

3. Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra)

Lombardy poplars grow very fast indeed, and their narrow columnar shape makes them desirable for tight spaces. However, they are weak-wooded and very short-lived due to their susceptibility to disease. They send up suckers from their roots in a hundred-foot circle or more. Their rooting system includes extensive surface roots which can make mowing difficult.

Even the "hybrid poplars" that are touted to have a longer lifespan will die young. We planted ten hybrid poplars about 15 years ago, and three have already died. In retrospect, we regret planting them, even though they served their purpose effectively for a few years as a screen from the road.

An interesting history of the Lombardy poplar (pdf) 

Flikr image by wallygrom