Platanus racemosa

A deciduous tree that grows about 40? tall by 30? wide. The bark is one of the most amazing feature of this tree . The bark can look like a jigsaw puzzle with its interesting patchwork of colors. If there is plenty of room for this tree in a home garden it can create a lovely winter silhouette. Good along streams for erosion control. This is a very important wildlife plant. Hummingbirds and butterflies use extensively. It is a food plant for the Western Tiger Swallowtail. Native to California and is also found outside of California, but is confined to western North America. This is a very important wildlife plant. Hummingbirds and butterflies use extensively. It is a food plant for the Western Tiger Swallowtail. Native Americans used Western sycamore inner bark for food and medicinal tonic, leaves were used to wrap bread during baking, and limbs and branches were used in house construction. Today, sycamore tree wood, is most frequently used for veneer, butcher?s blocks, furniture and pulpwood. Found in riparian areas, canyons, floodplains, at springs and seeps, and along streams and rivers. Communitites located in Yellow Pine Forest, Foothill Woodland, Chaparral, Valley Grassland, Wetland-riparian Between 0 and 6561 feet .

Found naturally along streams and rivers, this tree has long marked the course of water in the California landscape, and still does today in undisturbed riparian corridors. A fast-growing, deciduous tree, 50-100' tall by 30-50' wide, it is usually smaller in a garden setting. The twisting, picturesque trunk often divides into multiple spreading or leaning secondary trunks, and the peeling, silvery bark flakes off in uneven patches to reveal decorative mottling in tans, browns, and greens. Large, lobed, papery leaves open a pale, lime-green in spring and develop a bronzy, slightly wooly undersurface with age. The fuzzy hairs can irritate eyes and throats when crushed underfoot or brushed against, especially during hot, dry California summers. In fall, as the evenings cool, the maple-like leaves take on rich golden and russet hues, casting a honey-colored light into the understory. Best grown with moderate to high amounts of water, sycamores will tolerate alkaline soil, high temperatures, wind and even moderate amounts of shade. Tenacious, stately and long-lived they are especially effective on the banks of intermittent or permanent streams, and in moist swales and arroyos. Hardy to 10F. California, from the upper reaches of the Sacramento River, south to San Diego.

Picturesque :graceful habit, attractively mottled bark, and pleasant shade, "broad but filmy-leaved, never so dense as to be stuffy" (Peattie) it make this fast-growing long-lived, 30-80' native well loved. Sun/Med