sycamore

just wondering (im in scotland) i have a sycamore tree growing in my yard ,do the birds eat the seeds??? or does it help the birds in anyway,i know it's quite a haven for catterpillars maybe that's a reason to let it grow, if it's no good for the birds or insects though it's going in the bin. also would it be ok in a pot ,i realize it grows quite big but maybe with heavy prunning??.

thanks for any help

 

It is too big for a normal garden and I doubt very much if the 'seeds' (the little winged fingies) are any good at all for birds. I have never seen them eat any. The seeds sprout everywhere and become a total nuisance. I suggest you pull it out and look for a proper 'garden' tree. Anyways ... sycamore are not native to the UK

 

ye i'll bin it today .it's odd how all our native tree's are the ones who don't germinate/spread as fast .hawthorn takes years to germinate (im sure i read the somewhere) and isn't around in forests very much ,unless a human planted it. there isn't even any native wild flowers.

 

I live in the country and have loads of hawthorn self seeding.
I also have local native wild flowers (admittedly I sowed my own meadow

 

not so lucky down here :( .there's the odd hedgerow or woodland but not many wild life and certainly no meadows or even open space for a meadow

 

Yes they get pretty big if you are refering to Acer pseudoplatanus.
The winged seeds (Samaras) get everywhere. Bin it!

 

Hi ryan.c

I feel that some people are often too eager to class sycamores as weeds and claim they have no value as a tree. Ecologically speaking it's not as valuable as other trees, especially ones that are native to the UK, but sycamores are often home to thousands of aphids and catapillers; which in turn provide food for a number of insects, birds and mammals. Squirrels will often strip the bark off sycamores during the winter when their other food is scarce.

If you like the tree, and have room for it, then why not let it grow - either in situ, or in a pot. If you keep it well managed then it should provide with little problem.

 

well i haven't binned it yet so i suppose i could let it grow in a pot ,that way if it got too big i could "pull the plug" easily. i agree about the cattepillars the ones in the forests are covered with eggs in the leaves. i think i'll grow it on in a pot but keep it away from my other plants to stop infestations :D. im quite surprised it managed to grow though ,last year we bought a fuschia but the hard frost killed it so we kept the pot at the bottom of the yard behind the shed (behind the shed is a fence and a tree so the area as you can amagine is very shaded) and forgot about it :o there were even slugs laying eggs were we had kept the pot when we remembered about it and tried to get it out from behind the shed and even fungi growing next to it :o ,there was also it's "sibling" that hadn't made it (a sycamore seed that hadn't germinate for those who aren't crazy i thought i'd translate ) so this little one was lucky to survive ,it's been getting ravaged by the bugs too :( ,so i'll have to get more compost and a nice big pot for it .