Sycamore Tree Identification Guide

Size

• Sycamores often dominate the banks and streams of eastern rivers, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, with their massive size apparent to the observer. While their height, which averages between 60 and 100 feet, is not extraordinary, their girth often is. Trunk diameters between 2 and 4 feet are common, with some sycamores far exceeding those dimensions and having much wider bases. The hollowed-out trunks of rotted sycamores were large enough to provide homes to chimney swifts in colonial times, notes the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees: Eastern Region."

Leaves

• Look for leaves of different shapes on a sycamore. All will be larger than most of the foliage on surrounding species, with the average sycamore leaf measuring between 6 to 10 inches in length. Their bases often differ, with some having a more rounded one where the stem attaches, but others having lobes that seemingly wrap around the stem with an indented base. Sycamore leaves have three to five separate and distinct lobes. The green leaves turn yellow-brown in autumn and fall off but sometimes suffer from discoloration in wet springs due to a disease called anthracnose, which kills the foliage and forces the tree to grow new leaves.

Bark and Branches

• The whitish bark of a sycamore appears to gleam in the winter sun when all foliage is off the tree. The mottled bark peels away in thin flakes, revealing inner bark with an array of colors, such as tan, cream, gray, brown and green. The bark reminds many people of army camouflage, making a sycamore nearly impossible to misidentify. The branches of a sycamore sometimes begin quite low on the trunk, growing in a crooked manner. Some may have diameters where they attach to the trunk wider than that of many of the surrounding trees' trunks. Dead, broken-off branches typically lie strewn about the base of larger sycamores.

Buttonballs

• Flowers of little ornamental significance bloom on a sycamore in March, but the resulting fruit is an excellent key to identifying this tree. The flowers yield a round, tan fruit containing the fuzzy seeds of the sycamore. Nicknamed "buttonballs," these fruits grow singly from a long stalk and are an inch across. Buttonballs ripen by autumn but stay on a sycamore through the winter months. They open up in late winter or early spring, freeing the fluffy, tufted seeds, which float across the landscape.