American sycamore
Platanus occidentalis L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 27 m
- wide
- 27 m
Platanaceae
Also called American plane tree, Eastern sycamore, Buttonball-tree, American planetree, American Plane
Formerly Platanus densicoma, Platanus integrifolia, Platanus lobata, Platanus pyramidalis
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- TreeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- SE. Canada to C. & E. U.S.A.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 23 m to 30 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 23 m to 30 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Yellow, red, greenRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -34.4 °C (USDA zone 4a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- Sicómoro Americano, Álamo de río
- root
- PLAOCC, Gë:në’s, Akhatka
- French
- Platane d'Amérique, Sycamore
- Portuguese
- Plátano-americano
- German
- Amerikanische Platane, Westliche Platane, Abendländische Platane
- Finnish
- Amerikanplataani
- Hungarian
- Nyugati platán
- Russian
- Платан западный
- Czech
- platan západní
- Korean
- 양버즘나무
- Polish
- Platan zachodni
- Catalan
- Plàtan americà
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 2.5
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Platanus occidentalis (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.