western sycamore / California sycamorePlatanus 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.
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.
4 comments:
If that's not some kind of optical trickery making your hand look small, then that is (as Maxwell Smart would say) the second-biggest big-leaf maple leaf I ever saw.
P.S. It kills me that Aceraceae has been ditched. I just found out that Brodiaea are now in Asparagaceae of all things. Latin might be a dead language and all, but the common names of things last longer. ;)
Hi, John. This was the only leaf within touching distance and angled just right to compare with the size of my hand. I regret the day I started including plant families, but at the time I thought it'd help me figure out related plants. Now, I'm just confused. The asparagus family apparently includes so many plants: http://natureid.blogspot.com/search/label/asparagus%20family And, common names vary so much by region and can sometimes be to vague, hence why I try to include both in all my IDs. Sometimes I just want to go back to "ooh, pretty" and leave it at that.
John, I corrected this post and made a new comparison post here: http://natureid.blogspot.com/2011/11/bigleaf-maple-and-ca-sycamore-111911.html
Post a Comment