Dad, has a sycamore tree got balls?
“Hey, Jimmy. Have you seen the helicopters on the sycamore tree?”
“But Pete, a sycamore’s got spiky balls.”
“No way. That’s a chestnut tree.”
“Yeah! Everybody knows a chestnut tree’s got spiky balls. You break it open and get chestnuts. You can’t eat the English ones. The sycamore’s different. The inside of the ball is full of fluffy seeds. They blow in the wind; that’s how it spreads it’s seeds.”
“That’s what I was talking about, the helicopters. Every seed’s got wings that twirl in the wind and the seeds get blown about. But their not fluffy.”
“Well it’s not a sycamore then. I got my badge for trees in the Scouts. If it hasn’t got spiky balls, well I don’t know. It looks like a sycamore’s leaves and the bark looks the same. It’s weird.”
“Let’s ask my dad, he’s coming now. Hey Dad! Has a sycamore tree got spiky balls?”
“Tell him he’s wrong, Mr Robinson. It’s got helicopters.”
“Well boys,” says Mr Robinson. “You’re both right but one of you is wrong.”
“Well, look at this tree Dad. It’s got Helicopters and it looks like a sycamore but I told Pete that it can’t be.”
“OK boys, I can settle it easily. There’s more than one tree called sycamore. The one that grows in America and Canada has spiky balls with fluffy seeds. That’s the real official Sycamore. The British one has helicopters and everybody calls it sycamore but it’s from a different family. It’s from Eastern Europe. Neither of them is native to Britain, not really. And here’s the funny thing. The British one with its helicopters is from the same family as the maple which is Canadian.”
“That’s all a bit silly Dad. How are we supposed to know the right names of trees, if they’re all mixed up.”
“That’s easy. You learn all the botanical names.”
“That’s not easy,” chorus the two boys. “They’re all in Latin.”
