Deciduous tree, growing to 15 – 30 m high and 15 – 20 m wide. Some of its grey-brown bark peels off to reveal a creamy white inner bark, giving the trunk a mottled appearance.
Mid-to-dark green with 3 – 5 lobes and slightly serrated edges. They are 10 – 25 cm across and turn yellow-brown in autumn. The leaf lobes are about as wide as they are long.
Red or yellow, in small rounded clusters. The red (female) flowers grow from the newer shoots and the yellow (male) flowers grow from older branches further back toward the trunk.
A ‘fuzzy’ rounded ball that grows on the end of a long stalk. It is 2.5 cm in diameter and contains many tiny seed-like fruits known as ashenes. The fruiting balls appear in pairs and turn from green to brown when ripe.
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First fully open single flower
Full flowering (record all days)
End of flowering (when 95% of the flowers have faded)
First fully open leaf
Leaves open (record all days)
First leaf to change colour
Leaves changing colour (record all days)
First leaf to drop this year
50% or more of leaves dropped (record all days)
No leaves (record all days)
Fruit fully ripened / turned brown (record all days)
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) fruiting balls usually appear individually (not in pairs) and its leaf lobes are wider than they are long.
Oriental Plane Tree (Platanus orientalis) fruiting balls appear in groups of 3 – 5 and its leaf lobes are deeply incised and much longer than they are wide.
