Another Episode About My Mysterious Tree

I've been posting about this mysterious and very interesting tree I discovered last year during autumn period. I think it's a Platanus occidentalis, Nyugati platán in Hungarian and Paltin occidental in Romanian. It is also known as American sycamore.

For those of you who haven't read my previous posts, here are the links:

• Nature Is Funny Sometimes
• My Mysterious Tree

The particularity of this tree is that it looses its bark over winter and it grows a new layer starting from spring. The above photo was taken this week.

Some of the old bark is still there, that's going to come off soon as the new layer is forming already.

Take a close look at it and look at the texture. Isn't that amazing?

An American sycamore tree can often be easily distinguished from other trees by its mottled bark which flakes off in great irregular masses, leaving the surface mottled and gray, greenish-white and brown. The bark of all trees has to yield to a growing trunk by stretching, splitting, or infilling; the sycamore shows the process more openly than many other trees. The explanation is found in the rigid texture of the bark tissue which lacks the elasticity of the bark of some other trees, so it is incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath, so the tree sloughs it off. source

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To tell you the truth, I always knew platanus trees exist but had no idea this is the one. I have Steemit to thank you for because if i haven't been into photography, I probably be still blind, not paying attention to these details. Now I know this is platanus and also know why the bark comes off. I can't wait to see how the bark is going to behave during the summer.

So far this is one of my favorite tree. If you take a closer look you can see that the old bark that is coming off, looks like an army uniform. It could easily be a print for army uniform.

I'll be back with more photos, I promise.