Sycamore

The Sycamore is not native to Scotland or Britain but was introduced a few hundred years ago from Southern and Eastern Europe. Landowners had it planted in their parks and to mark their tenant townships and farms, and it has been here long enough to have been quite widely known in Gaelic translation as Craobh Shice – Craobh meaning ‘tree’ and Sice from the common name, and pronounced ‘Croov heeka’ It grows to a great height – up to thirty metres – and can have a trunk more than a metre wide, and its crown is wide and spreading and rounded. The bark is smooth and pale grey/brown when young becoming scaly with swirling patterns and pale brown/orange when older. The twigs are thick and stiff, with tight green buds – ‘gucagan’ in Gaelic - that open in late April – orange and green. New leaves are often tinged with maroon or burnt orange. When the leaves are almost fully out – like large webbed hands - the flower stalks appear, with little creamy white flowers that give off a soft nectar scent, the whole tree buzzing with bees in May The tiny petals drop away, leaving little green seed cases. The double-winged seed-cases expand during the Summer, turning from green to brown, falling in Autumn like helicopters as they spin away from the parent tree. The seeds germinate well in this country, hundreds of little seedlings on the forest floor or in gardens. Not all seedlings will survive the actions of weather and creatures and gardeners, but once a young tree has taken hold it is very resilient, and if a tree, young or old, is cut down it will sprout up again in vigorous stems, rich brown and straight. The timber is white and hard, yet easily turned and carved, and it is valued for furniture and bowls and tool handles.