I’m astounded the Pennsylvania Big Trees website lists an #AmericanSycamore #Platanus_occidentalis with a 198’ (60.3 m) average canopy width. I definitely want to take a field trip to confirm the size of this #BigTree because that size is bewildering — apparently making this the widest tree on a whole continent!

https://www.pabigtrees.com/tree-listings/TR20101011192241817

Image credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7726011@N07/8028732607/in/photostream

Since I can’t get enough #BigTrees … Eastern North America’s widest canopy apparently doesn’t belong to a Live Oak but rather an #AmericanSycamore #Platanus_occidentalis . The Lansdowne PA Sycamore has a 169’ (51.5 m) *average* canopy width. You could easily park a whole #Sauropod in the shade of that!

Image credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26725896@N07/3257171982

Trees Database:
https://www.treesdb.org/Browse/Species?Sort=MaxCrownSpread&SortAsc=False

Washington’s claimed size for #AmericanSycamore / #Platanus_occidentalis seems apocryphal, however another Plane #tree — #OrientalPlane / #Platanus_orientalis apparently reaches such sizes. Pictured is “Tnjri” from the Nagorno-Karabakh territory which has a claimed 27 m (88’) girth… it clearly isn’t *that* large but is at least as large as Washington’s

Image credit unknown, from:
https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/geo/guria/ozurgeti/12177_villageghirmizibazar/

There are claims about #AmericanSycamore #Platanus_occidentalis with much *much* larger trunks include one described by, of all people, #GeorgeWashington from what would later become #PointPleasant #WestVirginia (yes, the #Mothman town…) with a trunk circumference of 44’10” (13.67 m) — roughly a diameter of over 14’ (4.37 m).

Text is from Hulbert and Badgley’s 2010 The Ohio River: A Course of Empire

Reminiscing about my visits to the #ButtonballTree the #AmericanSycamore / #Platanus_occidentalis #ChampionTree of #Massachusetts. As of 2017 it measures 113’ (34.4 m) in height, 135.5’ (41.3 m) in average spread with a circumference of 309.6” (7.86 m), roughly making the trunk 8’ (2.44 m) wide.