Platanus occidentalis

American sycamore
A 25 ft 8 in (8 m) girth tree in Sunderland, MA
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Platanaceae
Genus:	Platanus
Species:	P. occidentalis
Binomial name
Platanus occidentalis L.
Generalized natural range of Platanus occidentalis

Platanus occidentalis, also known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane,^[2] occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech,^[3] is a species of Platanus native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario,^[4][5] and extreme southern Quebec.^[6] It is usually called sycamore in North America, a name which can refer to other types of trees in other parts of the world; in the United Kingdom, for example, the name syacamore typically refers to Acer pseudoplatanus. The American sycamore is a long-lived species, typically surviving at least 200 years and likely as long as 500–600 years.^[7]

The species epithet occidentalis is Latin for "western", referring to the Western Hemisphere, because at the time when it was named by Carl Linnaeus, the only other species in the genus was P. orientalis ("eastern"), native to the Eastern Hemisphere. Confusingly, in the United States, this species was first known in the Eastern United States, thus it is sometimes called eastern sycamore,^[8][9] to distinguish it from Platanus racemosa which was discovered later in the Western United States and called western sycamore.