Pronounciation: PLA-ten-us mex-i-KAY-na

Hardiness zones
Sunset 10-24
USDA 7-11

Landscape Use: Shade tree, urban parks and green spaces, large patio gardens, commercial, large spaces, lawn tree, mesic landscape designs, native desert wetland restoration.

Form & Character: Mexican sycamore is an upright, rugged shade tree that is stiff, informal and generally somewhat symmetrical.

Growth Habit: Deciduous, woody, broadleaf perennial tree, moderately upright, to 50-feet tall with less than equal spread. In Phoenix, Mexican sycamore growth rate is highly positively dependent on irrigation intensity and landscape context.

Foliage/Texture: Simple leaves with three deep lobes, 4- to 6-inches wide, pubescent when young to often scabrous with age, margins entire or sometimes dentate, trunk shedding, smooth light gray to blotchy white; medium coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Monoecious, imperfect male and female flowers in small, reddish clusters in axillary meristems during April-May just after new foliage emergence in the spring, thus flowers are born under the foliar canopy and are not a landscape amenity, inconspicuous. Fruits significant, smooth stalks with 2 to 4 rounded, tan, fuzzy fruits, 1- to 1.5-inches wide, seed wind dispersed during winter.

Seasonal Color: Mexican sycamore can have a very subtle, pleasing golden brown foliar color in fall in its native habitat, although during most years this foliar accent usually fails to be manifest in the lower desert landscapes. During winter months, the exposed whitish trunk and branches of all syamore species is an accent when trees are leafless.

Temperature: Tolerant of all but the most extreme heat associated with expansive impervious surface covers and buildings.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant

Watering: Like Arizona sycamore, Mexican sycamore is an obligate phreatophyte that needs at least access to ground water in its native habitat to thrive, thus we consider it to be a mesic landscape tree that does best in Phoenix with regular applications of supplemental irrigation.

Pruning: Be careful! Do not prune for several years after planting into the landscape to encourage transplant establishment and trunk caliper, then elevate canopy base SLOWLY over time to desired canopy height. Young trees rarely needs staking.

Propagation: Seed or softwood or hardwood cuttings.

Disease and Pests: Compared to Platanus occidentalis or Platanus racemosa, Mexican sycamore (like Platanus wrightii) is relatively anthracnose resistant......or maybe it's also just the dry air and low relative humidities of Arizona?

Additional comments: Mexican sycamore is a handsome tree with generally more symmetry than the mostly multiple-trunked, asymmetric form of Arizona sycamore. Thus, it is better suited for use as a park or greenspace deciduous tree. Sycamores are generally thought to be tough trees that can tolerate polluted urban conditions.