Elders 12 – Sycamore, friend or foe or Maple?

An increasing amount of homework is being done, so we are having to limit our findings to 1-2 per person! The Collective Mind is amazingly rich.

• The Romans may have introduced the Sycamore
• It can grow up to 40 meters tall
• Small fruits are called SAMARAs
• As a child we would take out the flesh from the veins in the leaf
• Strong giants
• I’m forever weeding baby sycamore
• In Celtic mythology linked to Brigid and strength and protection
• Welsh love spoons are made of sycamore
• Grandmothers nun’s sycamore
• It coppices well
• Either in sycamore or mulberry the birds would nest in one and not the other
• The sycamore sap is sweeter than the birch
• Sycamore has had bad press
• The latin name is Acer pseudoplatanus – false plain tree
• Hathor Egyptian goddess, was represented as a sycamore tree. Hathor was even given the title, “Lady of the Sycamore“.
• It does not taint so makes good spoons
• Sycamore is susceptible to sooty bark, which can lead to wilting of the crown and death of the tree, as well as a variety of other fungal diseases. Not good to inhale.

In our groups we did an investigation into the sycamore leaf and fruit, before Rachel put the cat among the pigeons and gave a Norwegian maple and Field Maple to compare and contrast.

Both Palmate. Sycamore more rounded, with serated edges, Norway Maple more pointy. Both make good fans. The Samara makes decorative earings or broaches.

After all that brain work, we needed to be practical, and most of us got a turn on the shave horse, shaving freshly cut sycamore (thank you Peter and Chris). There is very little sycamore in the wood, and the one we had we cut!

Thank you Esther for the Hungarian happy spoon

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