Sycamore: broad leaves and winged seeds

This entry shows how to name sycamore from its five-lobed leaves, paired winged seeds and opposite buds. It also separates sycamore from field maple, Norway maple and plane, which are the trees it is most often confused with.

How to recognise it

• Leaves: broad, with five main lobes, coarsely toothed edges, dark green above and paler underneath, on long stalks.
• Buds: plump, with overlapping green-brown scales, set in opposite pairs on the twig. See reading buds on a bare twig for how to check the pattern.
• Seeds: paired samaras, each with a wing angled in a wide V, hanging on long stalks through the autumn.
• Bark: grey and smooth when young, then breaking into flat plates and flakes on older trunks.
• Crown: broad and dense, forming a rounded canopy on a single trunk that often divides into several main limbs.
• Flowers: small and greenish, in hanging clusters that open as the leaves do in spring.

How it differs from look-alikes

Sycamore shares its opposite leaves and buds with field maple and Norway maple. Its broad leaves can be mistaken for those of plane. The table compares the two maples on the same features. Plane is described below the table.

Feature	Sycamore	Field maple	Norway maple
Leaf lobes	Five, coarsely toothed	Three to five, rounded and smaller	Five, pointed, with few or no teeth
Leaf size	Large and broad	Small	Large, similar to sycamore
Bark	Grey, flaking into plates on older trunks	Grey-brown, cracked into ridges	Dark, ridged and cracked, not flaking
Seed wings	Angled in a wide V	Spread wide, nearly flat	Nearly flat, spreading

Plane

Leaves set alternately along the twig rather than in opposite pairs, so the buds are not paired either. The bark flakes off in patches, leaving a mottled look of pale and darker areas on the trunk. Check the arrangement of the buds first: an opposite pair points to a maple, while a single bud at each leaf scar points to plane.

Where and when it shows

Sycamore grows in parks, hedgerows, woodland edges and open ground. It tolerates wind well, so it often appears at the edge of exposed land. The buds are the first feature to check in winter, the leaves open in spring, and the winged seeds spin down through autumn, a pair at a time.

In a mixed stand, sycamore often grows alongside silver birch at the margins and among common ash on damp ground, so check the leaves and buds rather than relying on habitat alone.