Sycamore, a blight on the landscape?

THANK you Lili Singer for your article [“A Giant That Goes Its Own Way” (Oct. 5)] advising people to plant more Western sycamore trees.

I especially liked the quote “People freak when new leaves curl up, dry out and fall off,” from arborist Craig Crotty, and the helpful hint that the fallen twigs make great kindling.

Obviously neither you nor your interviewees have experienced the joy of cleaning up the leaves and twigs of diseased sycamore trees 365 days a year.

Now entire areas of Los Angeles are full of ugly blighted trees that litter our yards, sidewalks, streets and gutters; but there is great news ... they are protected.

JIM BLACKWELL

Los Angeles

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ARE you folks out of your tree? Was Lili Singer’s article referring to the useless, high-maintenance, low-appeal weed that’s green for about two weeks a year before shedding a steady summer-long rain of dry, crackly leaf carcasses that turn to dust and mold?

Is this the same species with the ever-peeling bark and the brittle, spiky seedpods? I’m from back East and I know autumn when I see it.

Don’t malign this beautiful season with reference to the sycamore. The sycamore life cycle is 50 weeks of winter -- death, barrenness, decay. Unlike the liquidambar and persimmon trees in my yard, sycamore leaves don’t change color, they lose color -- from olive green to paper-bag brown.

And try raking a pile of sycamore leaves. They puncture and stick to the tines of the rake. Make a heap up to your neck if you want and take a running jump.

So I guess “grace and beauty” are in the eye of the beholder and Ms. Singer and I must be beholding and cleaning up after different trees. I was curious to see her mention a sycamore blight.

Do you know where I can get some?

TOBY MULLER

Los Angeles

Editor’s note: Western sycamores are deciduous trees. Whether diseased or not, they will drop their leaves.

The disease mentioned in the story, anthracnose, causes some leaves to drop in spring and twigs to die back, but the foliage returns and trees usually remain robust otherwise.

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I enjoyed the pictures and information on the California sycamore. We fortunately have a few very large trees on our property.

Unfortunately, I discovered I and my garden helper were allergic to the fuzz on the leaves as we both began sneezing when we began to clear out the weeds growing beneath.

They are very interesting to look at, but being too close is unpleasant.

ANN HAGEN

Malibu