Long overlooked, the sycamore tree is getting new respect.
This story was originally published in the December 2023 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.
Written by Wendy Holdren
Photos courtesy of Thomas Vandevander, Media Art Creations LLC
Admittedly, Luke Taylor-Ide has spent most of his life ignoring sycamore trees. “I think most of us have,” says Taylor-Ide, vice president of community engagement and assistant professor at Future Generations University. But in his work researching sustainability in central Appalachia, the Pendleton County native has grown quite fond of the humble sycamore.
Easily identifiable by its mottled, camouflage-like bark, the American sycamore has been overlooked in part due to a perceived lack of economic value, says Taylor-Ide. The interior wood is hard and coarse-grained. It makes poor firewood, as it is hard to split and burns quickly, and the tree’s branches are known to shed during heavy wind or snow. “Historically, they’ve been seen as useless. That was the narrative passed down from the old-timers,” he says.
But a fresh appreciation for the sycamore recognizes a range of valuable contributions. The tree can help prevent soil erosion and flooding—a natural disaster many West Virginians are all too familiar with. An important potential medicinal use has come to light. And the sycamore may have another unassigned value as well, as Taylor-Ide and his team are exploring the possibility of tapping the trees to create syrup.
An Ally in Flood Control
Although it took place before he was born, Taylor-Ide says a catastrophic 1985 flood serves as a marker in time for most of Pendleton County. Pre-flood, it was common to cut down the nuisance sycamore tree. However, postflood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a replanting effort, along with a public awareness campaign about the importance of the sycamore. “They hold
the stream beds in place,” Taylor-Ide says. “It’s a very environmentally significant tree.”
The American sycamore, which is common in much of the Eastern and Southern U.S., can be found in abundance in riparian zones, the juncture between land and running water, such as a riverbank. The plants of this resilient, fast-growing species are natural and early colonizers of flood-damaged areas, explains Sarah Ellis Collins-Simmons, Appalachian Program manager at Future Generations University.
“They thrive in rich alluvial soils and gravel bars as well as streambanks and lower slopes in headwater areas,” Collins-Simmons says. “They are ‘windfirm’ trees, meaning they have relatively deep and web-like, widespreading root structures that also help hold soil in place during flood events.” The mature trees can handle weeks of being inundated with water and saturated soils, she says—up to two months of continuously waterlogged soil in the dormant season. Their seedlings can also survive short periods of complete submersion, so long as the water is aerated.
The sycamore is also beneficial to critters: Raccoons, barred owls, and pileated woodpeckers often live in the hollow trees. Many insects also use the tree as part of their natural habitat, including the Appalachian tiger beetle, spiders, and fly species such as mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies. The various fly species are important streambed and riparian ecosystem indicators, Collins-Simmons says, as they demonstrate the health of the ecosystems and serve as food for fishes, crayfish, reptiles, and amphibians. Additionally, she notes, sycamore seeds are an important late-winter food source for native finches found in this region.
“From an environmental perspective, we need to leave them where they stand,” Taylor-Ide says. “To have a product of the environment like the sycamore tree helping us out, when flooding is the major catastrophe that we have to be concerned about living in West Virginia, the sycamore tree can be one of our greatest allies. It’s all about reassigning values.”
Emerging Potential for Medicinal Value
Cherokee, Iroquois, and other native peoples used parts of the sycamore tree medicinally, says Collins-Simmons. They made infusions or decoctions from inner bark and from roots to address respiratory illnesses, urinary tract infections, and dermatological rashes and infections and as a gastrointestinal aid.
None of these uses has been clinically proven to be effective. But there is published scientific evidence, Collins-Simmons notes, that at least one compound from sycamore leaves is effective in treating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA: a bacterial infection that is resistant to many commonly used antibiotics. It’s an important finding, because MRSA is a growing threat—and it may bring new research attention to older cultures’ uses of sycamore as an antibiotic.
Untapped Potential
Future Generations University, which was founded by Taylor-Ide’s father, specializes in the interdisciplinary field of applied community development. Its aim is to advance community-based sustainable development worldwide. With a specific focus on his home in the mountains, Taylor-Ide himself founded the University’s Appalachian Program, which focuses on sustainability, agriculture, nature-based economies, and rural development. “I believe the forest and the people are our most underutilized resources,” he says.
With this ideal in mind, Taylor-Ide and the Future Generations team have begun exploring how the sycamore may have untapped potential in the tree syrup industry—as an agricultural product for farmers and as a food for consumers. While maple syrup is by far the most common type of tree syrup, it is not the only type. Taylor-Ide was already familiar with black walnut syrup, but, during a training program hosted in Wayne County, someone shared with him that their grandfather had successfully tapped sycamore trees for sap and turned it into syrup. From there, the seed was planted.
In roughly 2017, Taylor-Ide teamed up with Mike Rechlin and Kate Fotos, who were already working on maple and walnut research at Future Generations University, to create a control site for sycamore tapping. “We wanted to, first, prove that we could do it, and second, see what it tastes like,” he says. For alternative syrups, research models suggest treating the tree as if it were a maple during the first year in terms of tapping and harvesting. With research findings, they could then hypothesize to get a better or lower yield. “We’ve determined you can make sycamore syrup, but it’s mainly observations at this point—not really data yet.”
With only a short window, roughly a six-week season, available for tapping, Taylor-Ide says much of the year is about hypothesizing. From the samples he has been able to collect, though, he says the taste is best likened to sorghum, which has a thinner consistency than molasses and a slightly more sour taste. His personal recipe, which he has dubbed “Maplemore,” includes a blend of between 70% to 80% maple syrup and 20% to 30% sycamore syrup, which results in a traditional maple taste up front and a more molasses-like aftertaste.
“I have now tried eight different batches of sycamore syrup, so I’m starting to have a point of comparison, but I’m still figuring out what leads to that variation,” he says. “Old-timers have said sycamore syrup tastes like butterscotch. In a batch I made this past year, which has been the best batch, I can understand why people would associate it with that flavor profile.”
He continues engaging with the syruping community in Appalachia and has connected with a number of entrepreneurial producers. Some have been conducting research on their own, and one man in Pennsylvania has been sharing his findings. “Having more people interested in experimenting in the field, we’ll learn a lot more,” Taylor-Ide says. No degree in syrupmaking is necessary to contribute to the conversation, he ensures. “We’ll take an experienced producer as a research partner.”
Over the next six months, Future Generations University will be working with Virginia Tech to create an official nutrition panel for sycamore syrup, which will be essential before the product is more widely produced and marketed. “We’re plugged into the national academic syruping community—other schools are researching alternative species of maple, such as bigleaf maple, which is genetically different from sugar maple or red maple,” Taylor-Ide says. But as far as he is aware, Future Generations’ deep dive into sycamore syrup production is an endeavor unique to the Appalachian region.
Tapping Into Education
Taylor-Ide and Collins-Simmons recently learned about a grant opportunity from the National Agroforestry Center, under the U.S. Forest Service and the USDA, which aimed to create educational opportunities around the riparian zone. Because sycamores thrive in these areas near waterways, the
team successfully applied for the grant to create user-friendly educational materials.
Unveiled in late August, a number of educational videos walk users through different types of tree species, why they’re important, and whether syrup can be made from them. The free resources are available on their YouTube channel, @nature-basedenterprises3859. The Future Generations University team will be working to share the information with foresters, state agencies, and individuals working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“Sprout School,” an educational initiative providing resources for K–12 science teachers, is another endeavor the team is utilizing to help educate the next generation. Taylor-Ide sees Sprout School as a way to use forests and agriculture to enhance STEM education in schools. Further, they hope to share information about the environmental and economic viability of the sycamore tree during Mountain State Maple Days in February and March. “We hope to add to the sycamore’s noble lineage by proving there’s a viable food source from it.”
SycaMORE
To learn more about tapping sycamore trees, reach out to the Future Generations University team at syrup@future.edu.