Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Proteales > Platanaceae > Platanus > Platanus mexicana

Platanus mexicana (American sycamore; sycamore)

Synonyms:

Infraspecies

Platanus mexicana var. interior

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  None
Allergen Potential [1]  High
Carbon Capture [1]  High
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  89 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  High
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium
Bloom Period [2]  Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Medium
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  3 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Hazards [3]  In hot dry climates the hairs of the fruits and leaves are believed to cause an effect similar to hay fever;
Janka Hardness [4]  770 lbf (349 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  30 inches (76 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  192000 / lb (423287 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.49
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  A fairly wind resistant tree, it can be grown as part of a shelterbelt planting; Wood - coarse-grained, tough, strong, very durable, difficult to split; Rather weak according to other reports; It weighs 35lb per cubic foot; Trunks of wild trees can be up to 4.5 metres in diameter and these were at one time hollowed out to make barges capable of carrying several tons of goods;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Flower Color [2]  Red
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  98 feet (30 m)
Width [3]  98 feet (30 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 5 Low Temperature: -20 F° (-28.9 C°) → -10 F° (-23.3 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  High to Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Platanus mexicana

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 8Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0