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Platanus
by Siusaidh NicNeill
Look through your list of Holy Trees, the Tree Alphabet or the Oracle - I
bet you won't find a Sycamore there. I always considered them to be weeds.
They'd grow on the Moon given half the chance and have taken extremely well
to cold acid soils of the North Highlands of Scotland. What kind of tree is
this?
It's a fine tree, a tall tree, a handsome middle eastern type tree - the 'Omar
Sharif' of trees. Enough. The Sycamore was introduced into this country over
six hundred years ago. Theories vary, as usual. It is possible that the Romans
brought it over. But why? Didn't they realise there were trees here already?
My preferred theory is that it was deliberately introduced by a group of people
who travelled all the way from Scotland, England and Wales through Europe
to Palestine and back. The Crusaders. And the reason they brought back the
seeds of the Sycamore, rather than the Olive or the Palm was that the Sycamore
was considered sacred. It was this beautiful, slow-growing tree which acted
as the boundary marker between Upper and Lower Egypt. It was beneath the broad
spreading branches of this tree that Mary and Jesus stopped for a breather
on the flight into Egypt. Now the Cedars of Lebanon may well have been Solomon's
wood of choice for the Temple, but I am willing to put money on the fine figuring
of this pale honey hardwood making an appearance somewhere in the original
building.
Today, any worker in wood would be proud to get a piece of storm blown Sycamore
to work. It may be common (especially here in the Western Islands) and it
may be adaptable (especially here...) but it is a slow to mature tree, even
though it is able to reproduce fruitfully (ah those helicopters of our childhood)
so it is quite rare to access. Woodworkers love it for many things but it
is particularly popular for making musical instruments, at one end of the
spectrum, and butcher's blocks, at the other. It is a singularly good wood
for coppicing and it is reckoned that an average seven acre croft planted
with mixed broadleaf high in Sycamore will not only be self-replenishing but
will offer stock shelter and enough fuel for one family - for ever.
During the great storms of the winter of 1998 a huge Sycamore in Corstophine,
near Edinburgh, was split in two by lightning. It was in the middle of a park
owned by the Forrester family and was said to be of great height and very
old. It made the papers. This family are said to be connected, through the
Knights Templar to the Sinclair family at Roslyn where there are many, many
Sycamores (also of great height and very old) but exactly five miles due south
of Roslyn Chapel there is a low hill. Crowning this hill there is a grove
of thirteen trees. The thirteenth tree is set off-centre and has been struck
by lightning. All these trees are Sycamore. In the centre of the grove is
the ruin of a 14th century chapel and it was here on Mount Lothian that William
Wallace was knighted. That these Sycamores were planted, there is no doubt,
The usual life span is about 250 to 300 years and it is my belief that this
may be the second or even third planting. A little archaeology might not go
amiss here. It is the planting of the Sacred Sycamore, so often thought of
as an incoming weed, that flags this place up as special in the landscape.
Those people who love trees, all trees, believe that if a tree is introduced
and can reproduce then claim it as native and love it. After all the Caledonian
Pine to which we all bough and scrape can only reproduce with extensive help
from the very species who destroyed their very extensive forests. But for
the Sycamore there would hardly be a tree to be seen on the wet, windswept
western islands. The great lush dome of the Sycamore that has stood to the
side of the school-house in this village since the day it was built over 150
years ago is a reminder of what a majestic tree it is.
