Sycamores

Posted on November 7, 2003 in Plants

Sycamores or alisos as they are known in Spanish are a favorite shade tree in my neighborhood and they grow wild in the creek bottoms. They’re one of the few native trees that drop their leaves, unimpressively. They spend much of the summer affecting a pale green. When autumn comes, they flash yellow and then brown before depositing their cupped hands all over the ground. The fleeting yellow phase is not as memorable as that of aspens or cottonwoods. There’s no splendor in the seasonable decline of sycamores. They just give up.