TREE OF THE MONTH

By Martin Freeth – Trees of Martinborough

What is Martinborough’s oldest tree? Well, it is not the prettiest and it might be regarded a pest by some people. 

The tree is a sycamore – botanical name ‘acer pseudoplatanus’ – and it has been growing behind the Victory Family Church on Jellicoe Street for 127 years.

Near the property’s rear boundary fence along Kansas Street, this sycamore is rather nondescript but in remarkably good shape given its age and many hot summers. It’s been growing quietly on this spot since 1897 – far longer than the more-adored oaks 100 metres away, in the middle of Martinborough Square. 

Our information source is Mate Higginson, Martinborough historian and a life-long gardener.

According to Mate, “Mr Sycamore” was planted by Ivy, daughter of T. F. Evans who built a saddlery store facing onto Jellicoe Street where it meets Memorial Square in the 1880s. 

Ivy planted a seedling on the site of the Evans family home which had been built behind the saddlery but burnt down within a few years. The land was bare and the girl would have found seedlings from sycamores already established around Martinborough at the time.

Like the tree, the building is still there and these days it is The Bach takeaway food outlet and café.

The sycamore is an exotic tree species renowned – or infamous depending on your perspective – for self-seeding and for its vigorous colonising of open sites. It tends to out-compete other plants after copious seed production each year.

Indeed, our old sycamore, on land which now forms the Victory carpark, will have been responsible for scores of current or past offspring in the neighbourhood. He (or she) is worth a passing nod of appreciation in 2024!

Facts:

Acer pseudoplatanus is a deciduous tree reaching up to 20 metres and it grows vigorously in many dryland settings. It has smooth grey bark and large 5-lobed leaves up to 20cm long on slender, reddish petioles. 

Each tree produces over 10,000 seeds a year, these spread by gravity, wind and water run-off, and they geminate where they can in the next spring. 

The species originates from Europe but naturalised in New Zealand as early as 1880.

The sycamore can live for 200+ years in the wild but, in cultivation, they can live for much longer. These broadleaf trees can grow to 35m and some specimens are known to be over 500 years old.

Photo of the sycamore – 14 February 2024 

Caption: A Sycamore tree believed to be the oldest in Martinborough town!