RE: Sycamore shape

Nan:

	I say if you've got the room (and Charles is right, you probably
need at least half an acre) and the inclination, then you should let them
grow as multi-trunked trees.  The California Sycamore, Platanus racemosa,
seems to prefer to grow that way in its natural habitat (along streams and
washes in the Coast Range and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada),
especially when not crowded by other trees, and is very picturesque and full
of character that way.  My grandmother has 7 or 8 sycamores as street trees
on her regulation corner lot.  They are all single-trunked, but otherwise
have been allowed to grow naturally (and are probably London Planes, which
is a hybrid, I think).  You should probably be aware, if you're not already,
that sycamores produce HUGE volumes of litter (bark, branches, and seed
balls, in addition to big, tough leaves) and the leaf fall is prolonged and
voluminous.  Grandma fought the good fight with those trees for half a
century.  A gardener takes care of it all now, but it still worries her.
(She turns 87 tomorrow!)  We didn't mind it when we were kids, because we
could rake those big, crispy leaves into mountains and then run and jump in
them.  We were easily amused in those days.  They are, however, a great,
fast-growing, drought-resistant shade tree, and if you've got a good
leaf-blower and a chipper-shredder, then you've got it made!
	By the way, the other native sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, is
considered the largest hardwood tree in North America. It occurs throughout
much of the forested parts of the Midwest and Eastern U.S., but is most
abundant and reaches its largest size along streams and on rich bottomlands.
It is also a fast grower. In maturity it occasionally attains a height of
140 to 170 feet and a diameter of 10 to 11 feet. It often forks into several
large secondary trunks, and the massive spreading limbs form an open head
sometimes 100 feet across!  The California Sycamore is usually nowhere near
that size, but you should make sure they've got room to stretch.

Kurt "Poppy" Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9

-----Original Message-----
From: Nan Sterman [n*@mindsovermatter.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 1999 3:32 PM
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Sycamore shape


This message is to all of you who are knowledgeable about native California
plants.... sycamores in particular.  My other half and I always debate
whether a tree should be shaped by humans or allowed to attain its own
shape.  He advocates for shaping it and I advocate for self-determination.
Right now, we have some pre-adolescent California Sycamore trees -- they
look more like huge shrubs at the moment, with many, many "trunklets"
coming from the base and near the base.  We want multi-trunked trees -- can
we just leave them to self-prune or should we do "selective amputation?"

thanks

Nan

PS  These trees get almost no supplemental water, so they are basically on
their own.
**********
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Nan Sterman
San Diego County California
Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
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