I love the fragrance of different trees, especially of the fallen leaves when a rain is coming. I have noticed how sweet hickory foliage is in spring, but never really focused on sycamore. I will pay special attention next time I get a chance.

--Spruce

I remember walking outside and I would smell this wonderful sweet scent and I happened to notice I was walking under a row of Sycamore trees. When I was in another location, I smelled that same scent around Sycamore trees. If you ever see any fresh fallen leaves, if you bruise them, that sweet scent comes out. Although I have heard some people say they don't care for the smell, but to me it is sweet.

Never noticed sycamores specifically, but I can REALLY dig the fragrance of some rotting gingko seeds in the early fall.

Anyone want to guess what THAT smell compares to ?!?

(;

Rancid butter and vomit for Ginkgo seed coats.

lol... I love the smell of Cercidiphyllum japonicium's leaves in the fall, like cotton candy.

I grew up under sycamores and love the smell of those leaves. Funny, but that scent doesn't actually remind me of any other, but seems both unique and unmistakeable. I always know when there's one around!

Gymnocladus dioicus also has fresh aroma in flower. Among the more common shade trees a similar floral fragrance is provided by lindens. The frequency of black cottonwood trees on damp sites here means that some areas are blessed with a pervasive balsamic aroma during part of the year.

To me the fleshy coating of ginkgo seeds smell like feta cheese to me.

Mine have a very pleasant earthy smell. It's not something that I'd go out of my way to inhale, but it certainly isn't a bad smell at all.

I've never noticed this.

I have to agree with everywhereman. I always think "sewage" when I smell them. They do have very nice, dense shade, though.

LOL, that is interesting everywhereman. I guess everyone's nose reacts differently to the smell of sycamores. To me they have this earthy sweetness I can't get enough of. Most people I know only realize the odor when I point it out.

I don't get sewage scent from them. I just think of sweet tea.

livingfossil, that description seems close. I tried it -- mashed up the leaves. Faint, but there's a sweetness apparent.

Offhand, I'd have thought Sycamore would have an unpleasant odor.

The big sycamore on my lot somehow escaped anthracnose this yr -- when the cool, rainy period occurred in early May the new growth hadn't emerged enough to get infected.

they smell like a mixture of rotting beef and armpit. their leaves seem to be brown more often than not. horrible tree! at least around here.

^^^ blasphemy!! I think they smell wonderful. An earthy herb scent with just a touch of sweetness. Only have to wait another couple months and I can enjoy it again, firsthand

I had a Sycamore in my yard for a few years, before disease struck. I now have a London plane tree. I have a large Sycamore near my back property line. I planted it, but the property is not mine now. I will try to sniff in my back yard for a while. Just to see if I smell a sweet tea smell. I planted the tree GUESSING 1998 or later. It is about 12 feet over MY property line, and into my neighbors. He is a nice guy, so we don't fuss over property lines.

I love the smell of Southern Magnolia leaves, and also enjoy the smell of hickory leaves.

I guess people's noses are different. I have always liked the smell of sycamores. It's one of the first plants that i particularly noticed the smell of. There were some growing around the church i attended when i was small. I loved that smell. They smell like some sort of sweet spice to me.

I have three in my garden :2 london plane and one cal sycamore. Sometimes i love to just sit out there and enjoy the fragrance.

I have always loved the smell.It is very unique to sycamores; very distinct. I attribute my sensititivity to exposure to a very pleasant experience when young. But I am also very sensitive to different smells.

Here is a recent article, but I think they have it wrong: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/science/sycamore-tree-smell-odor.html

Never gave it much thought but yeah I suppose sycamore (plane!) trees have a peculiar, light musty-sweet odor. In a city like Paris known for them, I reckon the other city odors would overwhelm it.

I haven't noticed any smell, but, there are lottsa smells near the trees, many plants, but, the evergreen magnolia leaves do have a nice smell, they are sometimes cut up into pieces and used in sachets. I'm lucky enough to have 2 of them in my yard, but, only 1 is big enough to spare any leaves, 1 is just a baby yet, maybe it's the shed leaves that have the sugars in the right way, to smell good. The tree likely takes the sugars into the trunk then sheds the leaves, and only a small amount of some chemicals are in the shed leaves. I am not sure how it goes really, but, there's some sorta change that happens to make the fall leaves smell spicy, and change colors in some trees in fall.

I will try to go near my London Plane when I'm not cutting grass. It's been such a hot summer, I am usually only outside just when I'm cutting grass, so I may need to make more of an effort. As far as the neighbors Sycamore, there's too many plants there to get a real sense of smelling just what the tree gives off, I just have a hosta or 2 under the London Plane tree. So, I should just smell what the tree gives off, but, maybe the OP has a more sensitive sniffer. Along with a couple other folks here.

I am reading a book called "what the dog knows" by Cat Warren, and there are people who can smell much better (sensitively) than others. The book is about dogs who work with their sniffers, but, some people can smell MUCH better than the average Joe.

There are many sycamores in my town but I have never noticed a peculiar odor attached to them. However, I have read that many smells given off by trees are designed to repel insects or attract the predators of insects that plauge them, and that this is what is responsible for the distinctive smell of pine/spruce needles. Next time you smell a tree, remember that the scent might have a purpose.

So happens, I just posted a thread on Sycamores regarding the exfoliating bark! But I noticed no particular aroma with them as I walked through a grove of them earlier today (but I confess, I do not have canine or feline olfaction). I have a forest of M. grandifloras but have never noticed any scent from the leaves (will grind down and sniff a few tomorrow out of personal curiosity.

I must say that Sycamores exfoliated bark is really nice to look at, I wish I could actually smell something special. I do know that Sycamore bark when it has peeled down is much more beautiful than any London Plane tree. But, I am not so sure I can smell anything if both trees were to peel down in front of me. I am going to have to say that I will likely collect a seed ball from my neighbors Sycamore next spring, or late winter, whenever the seedballs are hanging from the Sycamore trees. I'm choosing a Sycamore above a London Plane because of the colors when the bark is exfoliated, I prefer that the bark be lighter than the London Plane, which is tan, and Sycamore is white. But, the place I'm trying to have a Sycamore be planted has an oak tree there, which doesn't seem to have much vigor. If this oak tree would just grow well, I would';nt be trying to replace it. The tree which I planted there is a Chinkapin oak. And I have a lower tree that's a Swamp Basket oak, there isn't enough moisture for the Swamp Basket oak, and the Chinkipin is never gonna grow well, I should just wait and maybe plant a Sycamore, or London Plane. The trees I've been trying to grow may need too much moisture.

My husband and I both dislike the smell of the planetree, which is a hybrid of the sycamore. We call it the "but smell" tree. We are just happy that the village never planted one on our parkway!

That's kinda funny TOTTART, but, I must say, I';ve never smelled much of anything under my London Plane tree, or the Sycamore in my neighbors yard. I also have never seen any seedballs drifting in the wind, some folks are allergic to these trees I've heard. I will try to make an effort to go around these trees and smell around them. I will really HAVE to smell around my London Plane tree. I will have to smell when I mow the grass around this tree, but, my neighbors Sycamore, which I had planted when I owned that property, I'll have to smell around it too. It's pretty close to the property line, I'm shocked that I haven't smelled anything before. I kinda wish that I could smell these trees be it horrible or sweet and nice.

As for that "swamp Basket oak" I can never seem to get ANY tree to grow there. It's RIGHT on the property line, and I can't help but think that maybe the neighbors are killing these trees. That Swamp Basket oak just died, it hadn't put on any growth for about 3 years, then it just withered away to nothing. Really, I've tried 3 different species of trees there, and NONE of them have lived. I tried to grow 2 different oaks And a Silver Maple, which I only planted because the neighbors had planted a row of them MANY YEARS earlier, and their trees had been growing well for many years. I have hated their Silver Maples, they drop branches and send out seedpods all through out my yard, but, I did like there to be a consistent row of the same trees. But, for some reason all of those new Silver Maples I had stupidly planted ( really just 3 seedlings) they all seemed to die for (who knows) some reason, I'm really glad they died, I don't really like Silver Maple trees. But, anyway, I will be trying a Sycamore again in my yard. The neighbor who has the Sycamore tree that I had planted years ago, when it was my property, his Sycamore had shed seed far enough into my yard to where I have a Sycamore baby (about 20 feet away from his mama tree) and so I'll be digging up this small seedling, and planting it in the place that I had once had a small Sycamore seedling years ago, but, the seedling died, and I had then planted a Chinkapin oak seedling there, but, THAT tree didn't grow well there. I know that it's likely this Sycamore seedling will likely not do well either, but, I have gotten this Sycamore seedling for free, and this is the place that I want a Sycamore tree to grow, so I really am hoping that once that I dump a good bit of natural fertilizer, and some new soil, which is from my pots that I had tried to grow some flower seeds in, maybe I could get a Sycamore tree to grow there. I also think, I need to spread some Garden sulfer there because we had buried a couple of horses and dogs there, and I seem to remember that LIME was used because my parents were told that you need to spread lime when you bury an animal. Our soil has been deemed PH 7 so nuetral, but, if you add lime where pets, some being big like Horses, and we'd had to bury at least 3 horses on my current property, so maybe there is Lime under the soil.

But, really, if you haven't had to bury an animal, or know of there being Lime added to your soil, I would just say that if you smell something foul around your Plane tree or Sycamore tree, just post here and maybe we can figure out where and when these foul smells take place.

Like organic floral honey, sweet, a tad spicy & floral. Especially after a rain.

Have never noticed the smell of sycamores, there are SO MANY other reasons not to plant this tree in ones yard. Having said that, I do appreciated the appearance of this tree growing in the wild areas, public lands, or some neighbor's yard. I do find lots of room for boxwoods and know a lot of people think they stink, while their scent always brings a smile to my face in the early Spring, it's very, "earthy" and screams SPRING!

P.S1 ., Hate the almond smell of Ailanthus leaves, I think it's the arsenic.

P.S., 2 I have a Gingko tree, it is supposed to be a male tree, but I've read that some Gingkos have been be known to change their gender spontaneously. Oh joy!

Looking for answers- as a young man years ago, i enjoyed humid Summer evenigs, driving along a river parkway lined with trees in SE Mich. The air was always filled with a sweet scent that seemed “maple like.” I never investigated to figure out what species of trees were the source. I wonder if they were Sycamores?

With so many fragrant plants in summer, it would be hard to tell what plant it had been. Maybe if you could locate a sycamore tree in summer and get a leaf off of one and sniff it? You know off of a baby tree where you can reach the leaves? I have a London plane tree, a relative of a Sycamore, eastern sycamore tree in the eastern US. But, I also see other flowering plants near it.

Jim Bird could tell us the name of the river parkway and what town it was in, and we could stroll along with google streetview and see for ourselves what trees are lining that corridor.