The distinguishing peculiarity of the Sycamore is that it "casts its bark as well as its leaves." All trees do this more or less, it is a necessity of life that the bark should yield to the pressure of the growing stem; and the outer layers becoming dead fall off in scale or plates of varying size...but the Sycamore proclaims the fact more openly than any other tree of the forest. The bark of the trunk and larger limbs flakes off in great irregular masses leaving the surface mottled, greenish white and gray and brown, sometimes the small limbs look as if whitewashed. In winter it can be recognized from afar by this characteristic alone; and as it likes to grow upon river banks the course of the stream may often be traced for a long distance by the white branches of this tree. The explanation of this is found in the rigid texture of the bark tissue, which entirely lacks the expansive power common to the bark of other trees, so that it is incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath and the tree is obliged to slough it off. | Source: Keeler, Harriet L. Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. 265-266. Print.Download Original File
Source
Keeler, Harriet L. Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. 265-266. Print.
"The Sycamores of Brecksville Reservation" appears in: Harriet Keeler
