A giant that goes its own way
A few times each autumn, Elizabeth Schwartz gathers the fallen foliage from her neighbor’s Western sycamore in West L.A. and remembers its seasonal gifts: the joy of stomping on huge palmate leaves, the autumnal crunch that fills her ears and the tree’s scent -- an earthy fragrance that she calls “deciduous.”
To Schwartz, who teaches a UCLA Extension course on gardening with California native plants, the Western sycamore does more than provide leaves for compost. It serves as a beacon of the season.
“I’m an Easterner,” she says. “It’s such a pleasure having this tree nearby.”
The Western sycamore -- also called the California sycamore and known botanically as Platanus racemosa -- is amazingly common in wild and urban areas of Central and Southern California, where it’s usually the tallest tree in sight. It provides shade, supports wildlife and grows well with other natives or in a lawn.
The late plants man Philip Chandler of Santa Monica called the Western sycamore “God’s gift to the landscape designer.”
Spherical tan fruit dangles from zigzag stems in summer and autumn. Leaves turn dusty chartreuse, then a rusty hue, before dropping for winter. Come spring, they appear again, pale green and furry-backed. The mottled trunk and gnarled limbs glow like burnished silver in the moonlight.
“It’s just beautiful with architecture,” says Pacific Palisades garden designer Stephanie Blanc. “Though it’s a woodland tree, you can throw it up against a stark house, and it would sing there too.”
This species is also fast-growing and easy to transplant, even when large -- a good choice for an “instant big tree,” she says.
Blanc recommends starting with single-trunk P. racemosa -- one gorgeous upright “leader” to a pot -- as opposed to multi-trunk specimens that, she says, may actually be two or more trees lodged in the same container. “The trunks grow into each other and fight for dominance. Only one survives, and what’s left looks awful.”
Don’t plant trunks on a slant, a popular practice of gardeners trying to force what often happens naturally, she says. Let trees take on their own rakish tilt. Provide good drainage, regular water and plenty of space and you’ll have what certified arborist Craig Crotty of Arbor Culture in Verdugo City calls Southern California’s best native tree.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful tree -- if in the right place, where it can grow off sideways and not really care,” says Crotty, citing a picturesque stand of old giants growing streamside in Glendale’s Verdugo Park.
In terms of structure, he says, the Western sycamore tends to break less, stand up to wind better and drop fewer branches than other trees.
Though removing deadwood is never a bad idea, grooming a 75-foot-tall tree can be a challenge. But thanks to sycamore anthracnose, a fungal disease also known as sycamore blight, the tree is virtually self-cleaning, sloughing off twigs throughout fall and winter. The disease is worse during wet springs and can be disconcerting.
“People freak when new leaves curl up, dry out and fall off,” Crotty says.
New foliage appears quickly and trees rarely suffer, however, and fallen twigs make great kindling.
The traditional treatment for sycamore blight, copper sulfate spray (or Bordeaux powder) is impractical and unnecessary, experts say. In fact, the disease is responsible for some of the tree’s defining characteristics, including the twisted branching, a result of new growth dying back.
Infections also create wood cavities that provide homes for nesting animals. Eagles and hawks rest on high, scouting for smaller birds and rodents. Goldfinches dive for fluff-tailed sycamore seed. Hummingbirds line their nests with twigs and pieces of leaves.
The tree is a veritable community of wildlife. Lizards and mice find cover and sustenance in the leaf duff. Many beneficial bugs prey on the Western sycamore lace bug. The Western sycamore borer -- a clearwing moth whose larvae tunnel through bark and phloem but don’t kill the tree -- is a source of food to woodpeckers and songbirds.
The caterpillars of the Western tiger swallowtail and other butterflies and moths dine on the tree’s leaves. Even mistletoe, a parasitic plant that clusters in high branches, plays a role in this habitat. Its stems nourish the larvae of the great purple hairstreak butterfly, and birds eat the berries.
The message to gardeners: Western sycamores are durable and can live hundreds of years. Tolerate some damage, and let the tree manage itself.
Oddly, the greatest threat to P. racemosa is the widely planted Planatus x acerifolia, the London plane tree. Stick-straight and disease-resistant, this cultivar hybridizes with the Western sycamore, replacing the native species.
“The development of the plane tree family took 200 million years,” says Kristina Schierenbeck, a botany professor and herbarium director at Cal State Chico. “In 300 years, we’ve reversed the evolution.”
Her solution: Plant P. racemosa, not P. x acerifolia. The former, she says, is more beautiful anyway. The foliage of P. racemosa turns orangy as nights grow colder, and come February, a fresh canopy signals yet another season change, casting ample shade from spring through fall.
WHICH plants fare best at the foot of this leafy behemoth?
“Big shade-loving natives,” designer Blanc says. “Coffeeberry, wild lilac [Ceanothus], all of the ribes, tall sages [Salvias] -- large plants that won’t get buried by the leaves. A huge mass of deer grass [Muhlenbergia rigens] or Mahonia ‘Skylark’ [a hybrid Oregon grape with beefy leaves] would look really great too.”
Barbara Eisenstein, horticultural outreach coordinator at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, suggests shade-loving flowering shrubs and perennials: bush anemone (Carpenteria californica), malva rosa (Lavatera assurgentiflora), wild mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) and Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana).
In his coveted, out-of-print book, “Landscape Plants for Western Regions,” Bob Perry discusses the “Platanus racemosa association” that occupies California’s low-elevation foothills and washes. His list of associated flora includes “some of the most colorful and attractive California natives,” among them: Western redbud, Santa Cruz ironwood, manzanita, toyon, Pacific wax myrtle, Catalina cherry, creeping barberry, heuchera, iris, blue-eyed grass and California poppy.
Of course, there’s always turf grass, if that’s your style.
“Or you could plant nothing,” West L.A. gardener Schwartz says. “And just let there be a deep bed of big crunchy leaves.”
Lili Singer can be reached at home@latimes.com.
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Sold on sycamore? Plant one now
Western sycamores can be planted any time of year, but fall is ideal. Cool weather and winter rains keep the young plant happy. Nurseries stock Platanus racemosa in containers all year; some sell bare-root trees in winter. Some tips on planting:
Location: Before you plant a Western sycamore, study it from all sides. Try to anticipate the direction of future trunk and branch growth, then position the tree in the ground accordingly. The area around the trunk should be relatively clear for 25 feet in all directions. Provide up to 100 feet of headroom.
Planting: Don’t amend the soil. Dig a hole that’s as deep as the root ball and twice as wide. Remove the tree from its container and place it in the hole, spreading roots in all directions. Fill in the hole with soil, packing lightly to remove air pockets. The soil should rise to the same level on the trunk as it did when the tree was in the container. Soak well.
Watering, feeding: Irrigate deeply every seven to 10 days for the first year after transplanting (less often if rains are frequent). This species needs no fertilizer but does like a 3-to-4-inch layer of organic mulch, kept at least 6 inches from the trunk.
Pruning: In L.A., city ordinance protects the tree from heavy pruning or removal. Prune young trees only for good structure. An irregular shape is part of this tree’s character.
-- Lili Singer
