Sycamore Buds

I cut some small sycamore branches from tree at home to show the pre-K field trip groups. When it cut the branches, they only had buds – no leaves - and that’s what the children saw. I decided to put them in water when I got home to see what would happen. The buds split and tiny leaves began to emerge about a week after the field trips!

Once they started, progress was rapid. The pictures below were taken 2 days after the earlier ones. The leaves are curled at first but quickly flatten out and begin to look like sycamore leaves.

The branches have been indoors and are not ahead of the rest of the tree. We’ve some cool nights here in Maryland and the buds on the tree are just now popping open --- at least 5 days behind my branches inside.

I also put the maple branches that I cut in water and the samaras have continued to develop but the leaf buds are still very tight.

My next project is going to be encasing some of these small leaves and seeds in clear contact paper. Hopefully it will preserve them enough that we can use them with field trips later this month and into May.