Species
+

Acer pseudoplatanus L.

Berg-Ahorn (DE); Sycamore maple, False Planetree, Great Maple, Hórski klon

Climate known 87 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Acer pseudoplatanus, known as the sycamore in the British Isles and as the sycamore maple in the United States, is a species of maple native to Central Europe and Western Asia. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, tolerant of wind and coastal exposure.

Text from Wikipedia, “Acer pseudoplatanus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +18
Wild records
351 in range· 102 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
926mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 88 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 926 mm a year, wettest July at 88 mm, driest April at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -11.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acer abchasicum Rupr.; Acer atropurpureum Dippel; Acer bohemicum C.Presl; Acer bohemicum C.Presl ex Opiz.; Acer dittrichii Ortmann and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (659 mm of 926 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 16.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 926 mm a year, wettest July at 88 mm, driest April at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

926 mm a year at the habitat, 659 mm of it June to January. Wettest month July at 88 mm, driest April at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 669 mm to 1542 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -11.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -11.2 °C, the absolute minimum -23.9 °C, about 89 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.0 °C to 2.5 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 926 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 233 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -23.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-23.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 5–35RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 233 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -0–75 / 2–79 / 5–1013 / 9–1417 / 14–1920 / 17–2122 / 19–2422 / 19–2418 / 16–2014 / 12–158 / 5–105 / 0–7
Night °C-2 / -8–3-1 / -7–21 / -4–44 / -0–68 / 4–911 / 8–1314 / 10–1514 / 10–1511 / 7–137 / 3–103 / -3–6-1 / -7–3
Rain mm79 / 45–10361 / 38–9174 / 48–11857 / 43–10375 / 59–13882 / 57–17188 / 60–19082 / 59–18179 / 60–13783 / 49–11982 / 52–11384 / 50–124
DLI6 / 5–1011 / 9–1619 / 16–2529 / 27–3233 / 32–3635 / 33–3734 / 32–3730 / 27–3221 / 18–2513 / 11–177 / 6–115 / 3–8
RH %66 / 61–6964 / 60–6662 / 59–6460 / 58–6260 / 58–6260 / 58–6360 / 58–6361 / 58–6463 / 61–6565 / 62–6667 / 63–6967 / 62–70

Each figure is the median across the 233 grid cells holding the 345 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 810:3773 (49.475, 8.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 233 distinct grid cells holding the 345 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 810:3773 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 49.50_8.750, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 217 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Ukraine, North Caucasus· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Baltic States, North European Russia, Algeria, Canary Is., Madeira, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Argentina South
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker50.805, 4.384 · in the densest population, 225 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 351 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 102 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 556 km away. 323 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 351 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Acer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanusAcer pseudoplatanus

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Acer pseudoplatanus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungal laccases – occurrence and properties
Petr Baldrián (2006) · FEMS Microbiology Reviews
TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access
Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bönisch, Sandra Dı́az, Sandra Lavorel (2019) · Global Change Biology
A review on the plant microbiome: Ecology, functions, and emerging trends in microbial application
Stéphane Compant, Abdul Samad, Hanna Faist, Angela Sessitsch (2019) · Journal of Advanced Research
Abiotic Stress and Reactive Oxygen Species: Generation, Signaling, and Defense Mechanisms
Swati Sachdev, Shamim Akhtar Ansari, Mohammad Israil Ansari, Masayuki Fujita (2021) · Antioxidants
Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species
Lars Gamfeldt, Tord Snäll, Robert Bagchi, Micael Jonsson (2013) · Nature Communications
Cell Wall Metabolism in Response to Abiotic Stress
Hyacinthe Le Gall, Florian Philippe, Jean-Marc Domon, Françoise Gillet (2015) · Plants
A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality
Henry D. Adams, Melanie Zeppel, William R. L. Anderegg, Henrik Hartmann (2017) · Nature Ecology & Evolution
Ploughing up the wood-wide web?
Thorunn Helgason, Tim J. Daniell, R. Husband, A. H. Fitter (1998) · Nature
Opportunities for improving phosphorus‐use efficiency in crop plants
Erik J. Veneklaas, Hans Lambers, Jason G. Bragg, Patrick M. Finnegan (2012) · New Phytologist
Protecting against water loss: analysis of the barrier properties of plant cuticles
Markus Riederer, Lukas Schreiber (2001) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Temperature response of parameters of a biochemically based model of photosynthesis. II. A review of experimental data
Belinda E. Medlyn, Erwin Dreyer, David S. Ellsworth, Manfred Forstreuter (2002) · Plant Cell & Environment

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Acer 18 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.