General: Bark on young trees smooth or scaly, light gray; on older trunks dark gray, broken into blocks and resembling alligator hide. A medium-sized tree, often flat-topped, with horizontal branches and short spur-like twigs. Grows mainly on swampy lands, but found elsewhere. Wood very difficult to split; used chiefly for boxes, fuel and railroad ties.
AMERICAN PLANETREE
(Platanus occidentalis)
Leaves: Simple, alternate, 3-5 lobed, 4″-7″ across, generally wider than long; light green above, paler and wooly beneath. Base of leaf-stem hollow, enclosing next year’s bud.
Twigs: At first green and hairy, later brownish, smooth; zigzag. Buds cone-like with a single smooth, reddish brown scale.
Fruit: A round “button-ball,” single or occasionally in 2’s on a tough slender stalk. These fruit clusters are light brown, 1″-1¼″ in diameter, consist of many seeds, each surrounded at the base by silky hairs; usually hang throughout the winter.
General: Bark of two layers, the outer peeling in brown flakes, the inner whitish, yellowish or greenish; on base of old trunks dark brown and fissured. A tree of large size; mature trees often very massive. Prefers stream banks. Wood used for furniture, crates, butcher blocks, and flooring. Also known as American sycamore. The London planetree (P. acerifolia), with 2, sometimes 3, “button-balls” on a stalk, is more commonly planted as a shade tree.
COMMON HORSECHESTNUT
(Aesculus hippocastanum)
Leaves: Palmately compound, opposite; usually with 7 [leaflets], each 4″-9″ long, wedge-shaped, long-pointed, smooth when full-grown; turning a rusty yellow in autumn.