bigleaf maple and CA sycamore ~ 11/19/11 ~ Garland Ranch

bigleaf maple (left) and California sycamore (right)

Both these deciduous trees are native to California and provide lovely autumn colors. They can be quite tall, so it's difficult to compare the shapes of the leaves when they're too high to examine. It's taken me until this hike, when the forest floor is littered, to truly distinguish the leaves. For the longest time, I thought Garland only had one native large-leaved tree, that being the bigleaf maple. I was wrong. Considering the place used to be a ranch, I figured any sycamores I found were non-native. I've corrected past posts to reflect my new understanding, like last November's Garzas Creek habitat post.

bigleaf maple
Acer macrophyllum
Sapindaceae (formerly Aceraceae)

Notice the 5 deep lobes of the leaf? The vertically grooved bark, often covered in moss or lichen, reminds me very much of walnut trees. Other eastern North American counterparts are red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), and sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Despite what the USDA PLANTS database shows, the silver maple is not native to CA.

western sycamore / California sycamore
Platanus racemosa
Platanaceae

What originally confused me about the leaves is the CA sycamore's can have 3 or 5 lobes. I can usually recognize sycamore bark by its sickly, puzzle-like look - yep, that's my own highly technical description. Its eastern North American counterpart is American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis).

bigleaf maple

In a previous post from this summer, I showed how big the CA sycamore leaves get, which can be considerably larger than the bigleaf maple. Happy fall!

ps 11/29/11 - I'm glad I don't have to deal with the differences between sycamore maples and field maples like they do over in the UK, The Squirrelbasket and Loose and Leafy.

western sycamore ~ 07/14/11 ~ Garland Ranch

western sycamore / California sycamore
Platanus racemosa
Platanaceae

How much do leaf shapes vary? I'm not positive of this ID. It was definitely a tree. Too bad I didn't also take a picture of the trunk. I can't think of anything else it could be. We're not exactly in the tropics so leaves tend to be much, much smaller than this.

ps 11/20/11 - I originally posted this as a bigleaf maple. As I was hiking yesterday at Garzas Creek, I paid more attention to the big leaves, the bark on the trunks, and the beautiful fall colors both native CA trees provide. To see my new post, check out bigleaf maple and CA sycamore.