Platanus racemosa | |
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California Sycamore by Mathias Joseph Alten c. 1929 (Grand Rapids Art Museum) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Proteales |
Family: | Platanaceae |
Genus: | Platanus |
Species: | P. racemosa |
Binomial name | |
Platanus racemosa | |
Natural range |
Platanus racemosa is a species of plane tree known by several common names, including California sycamore, western sycamore, California plane tree, and in North American Spanish aliso. [1] Platanus racemosa is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in riparian areas, canyons, floodplains, at springs and seeps, and along streams and rivers in several types of habitats. [1] [2] [3] It can be found as far north as Tehama and Humboldt counties.
This large tree grows to 35 metres (110 ft) in height with a trunk diameter of up to one meter (three feet). The height of these trees ranges from 10 to 35 meters. [4] A specimen on the campus of Stanford University has a trunk girth (circumference) of 10.5 feet (3.20 m). [5] The trunk generally divides into two or more large trunks splitting into many branches. The bark is an attractive patchwork of white, tawny beige, pinkish gray, and pale brown. [6] Both older bark and twigs on this plane sycamore become darker with time. The twigs and bark range from a light brownish gray to a shade resembling the color sepia.
Platanus racemosa is the dominant species in the globally and state endangered sycamore-alluvial woodland habitat.
The large palmately lobed leaves may be up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) centimeters wide and have three or five pointed lobes. [4] New leaves are a bright translucent green and somewhat woolly. [5] The deciduous tree drops copious amounts of dry golden to orangish red leaves in the fall. The inflorescence is made up of a few spherical flower heads each around a centimeter wide. The female flower heads develop into spherical fruit clusters each made up of many hairy, maroon-red-woolly achenes. [1] Depending on the sex, the inflorescence can either be red, if female, or chartreuse, if male. After the female clusters fertilize, the achenes bear a fruit that breaks apart and scatters just as the tree's pollen does. [1] [6]
The tough and coarse-grained wood is difficult to split and work. It has various uses, including acting as a meat preparation block for butchers. Many small birds feed on its fruit, and several mammals eat its twigs and bark. The pollen resulting from the hairs on the leaves and flowers of Western sycamores can be allergens for some people. [7] New leaves are susceptible to anthracnose canker, which, when it causes a side bud to become the new leader, can create picturesque angling trunks and branches on older specimens. [7]
It is also widely planted horticulturally as a landscape tree in public landscapes and private gardens. While it requires some water, and can be grown in lawns, once established it is drought tolerant. New appreciation for how it shades sun in summer and lets sun through in winter has led to its use in green architecture and sustainable design.
California sycamore wood is extremely hard and difficult to work, but can still be employed to create a variety of items such as buttons, tobacco boxes, furniture, wooden utensils, and barrels. [1] [8] The form and wide canopy of the species make it an effective shade tree. [6] This western sycamore's shade cools the surrounding bodies of water while simultaneously offering a home for some animals in the humid environment in which it flourishes. [9]
Increased human interference has made the P. racemosa more susceptible to cross-breeding with other Platanus trees. This hybridization with other species like the P. x acerifolia offers the P. racemosa the advantage of resisting fungal diseases, namely the sycamore anthracnose. Interbred California sycamores are less vulnerable to this disease than the original P. racemosa as it harms their wood. However, sycamore anthracnose produces deadwood which creates a habitat for animals like wood ducks. The lack of non-hybridized P. racemosa thus harms the riparian woodlands in which they thrive. [9]
Another disease that that the P. racemoa is particularly receptive to is the Fusarium dieback which is carried and passed on through two kinds of invasive ambrosia beetles. Removing the tree itself is one way to prevent the significant harms of Fusarium dieback from spreading but a mixture of fungicides such as metconazole combined with an insecticide can additionally reduce the number of ambrosia beetles that transmit this disease. Close monitoring is required in order to prevent a substantial beetle infestation from occurring as that would damage the tree to the point of needing removal. [10] [4]
Further hybridization between the P. racemosa and P. x hispanica are a threat to the genetic diversity and identity of the former. The disease combatant advantage that the hybrid provides can bring about a decline in the native tree. The ensuing decline and genetic disintegration could not only harm the tree itself, but nesting birds, monarch butterflies, and numerous other small animals that reside or find shelter within the California sycamore's shade. D. Whitlock's study on the RNA of the Platanus trees near the Sacramento River reveals that P. racemosa contains genes from P. x hispanica, which consequently demonstrates the increased erasure of the former. [4]
Platanaceae, the "plane-tree family", is a family of flowering plants in the order Proteales. The family consists of only a single extant genus Platanus, with twelve known species. The plants are tall trees, native to temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The hybrid London plane is widely planted in cities worldwide.
Quercus palustris, also called pin oak, swamp oak, or Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance.
Platanus is a genus consisting of a small number of tree species native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae.
Platanus × acerifolia, Platanus × hispanica, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus Platanus. It is often known by the synonym London plane or London planetree. It is a hybrid of Platanus orientalis and Platanus occidentalis.
Platanus occidentalis, also known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane, occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech, is a species of Platanus native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario, and extreme southern Quebec. It is usually called sycamore in North America, a name which can refer to other types of trees in other parts of the world. The American sycamore is a long-lived species, typically surviving at least 200 years and likely as long as 500–600 years.
Acer pseudoplatanus, known as the sycamore in the British Isles and as the sycamore maple in the United States, is a species of maple native to Central Europe and Western Asia. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, tolerant of wind and coastal exposure.
Alnus glutinosa, the common alder, black alder, European alder, European black alder, or just alder, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to most of Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa. It thrives in wet locations where its association with the bacterium Frankia alni enables it to grow in poor quality soils. It is a medium-sized, short-lived tree growing to a height of up to 30 metres (98 feet). It has short-stalked rounded leaves and separate male and female flowers in the form of catkins. The small, rounded fruits are cone-like and the seeds are dispersed by wind and water.
Betula pendula, commonly known as silver birch, warty birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to Europe and parts of Asia, though in southern Europe, it is only found at higher altitudes. Its range extends into Siberia, China, and southwest Asia in the mountains of northern Turkey, the Caucasus, and northern Iran. It has been introduced into North America, where it is known as the European white birch or weeping birch and is considered invasive in some states in the United States and parts of Canada. The tree can also be found in more temperate regions of Australia.
Betula pubescens, commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia, growing farther north than any other broadleaf tree. It is closely related to, and often confused with, the silver birch, but grows in wetter places with heavier soils and poorer drainage; smaller trees can also be confused with the dwarf birch.
Cornus nuttallii, the Pacific dogwood,western dogwood, or mountain dogwood, is a species of dogwood tree native to western North America. The tree's name used by Hul'q'umi'num'-speaking nations is Kwi’txulhp.
Fraxinus latifolia, the Oregon ash, is a member of the ash genus Fraxinus, native to western North America.
Quercus lobata, commonly called the valley oak or roble, is the largest of the California oaks. It is endemic to the state, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou to San Diego counties. Deciduous, it requires year-round groundwater, and may live up to 600 years. Its thick, ridged bark and deeply lobed leaves are characteristic, and assist in identification.
Inonotus arizonicus is a plant pathogen. I. arizonicus is a locally common saprotrophic polypore that induces white rot in sycamore trees in southwestern North America. Host species include Platanus wrightii and Platanus racemosa. The fruiting bodies, shaped like hooves or a plate or a stack of plates, can appear on trunks, at the base of living trees, or on stumps or snags. In California this species is generally found south of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thousand cankers disease (TCD) is a recently recognized disease of certain walnuts. The disease results from the combined activity of the walnut twig beetle and a canker producing fungus, Geosmithia morbida. Until July 2010 the disease was only known to the western United States where over the past decade it has been involved in several large scale die-offs of walnut, particularly black walnut, Juglans nigra. However, in late July 2010 a well-established outbreak of the disease was found in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. This new finding is the first locating it within the native range of its susceptible host, black walnut. In 2013, an outbreak was found in the Veneto region of Italy, where the disease has been found on both black walnut and English walnut.
Populus fremontii, commonly known as Frémont's cottonwood, is a cottonwood native to riparian zones of the Southwestern United States and northern through central Mexico. It is one of three species in Populus sect. Aigeiros. The tree was named after 19th-century American explorer and pathfinder John C. Frémont.
Euwallacea fornicatus, also known as tea shot-hole borer, or polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB) is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles known as an invasive species in California, Israel, South Africa, and Australia. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries.
Oak Canyon Nature Center is a nature preserve located in Anaheim, Southern California. Owned by the city, the park spans an area of 58-acres, comprising three adjoining canyons of the Santa Ana foothills. It has an elevation range from 525 to 825 feet ., and contains three major vegetation zones: coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and riparian. Open on weekends, the John J. Collier Interpretive Center features a museum with live animal and regional natural history exhibits.
Euwallacea interjectus is a species of ambrosia beetle in the species complex called Euwallacea fornicatus. It is native to Asia but has been introduced to the Western hemisphere over the last century.
Lejeunea mandonii, also known as Atlantic lejeunea is a species of liverwort from the Lejeuneaceae family.