Editing Platanaceae (section)

== Description ==
[[File:Platanus orientalis tree, Thasos.jpg|thumb|left| Example of ''P. orientalis'']]
* Large, sympodial, deciduous [[tree]], speckled [[bark (botany)|bark]] that sheds in large irregular sheets, leaving a smooth surface that is mottled and pale, persistent bark at the base of the trunk, indumentum with large glandular hairs, multicellular and uniserrate or short with uniserrate ramification (in candelabrum), in stellate fascicles; glandular hairs with unicellular, globular capitulum, cuticular [[wax]]es without crystalloids, with rods and plates
* [[Leaf|Leaves]] generally with very variable shapes and nervation, simple, alternate, more or less distichous, isobilateral palmate with three to seven lobes (palmatifid to palmatisect) with whole edges or with glandular teeth (each one with a midvein that broadens towards the glandular apex, where it ends in an open hole), or penninerved and whole (''[[Platanus kerrii]]''), this shape common in young, vernal leaves in other species, [[vernation]] folded, with the [[Petiole (botany)|petiole]] usually sheathed, enclosing the axillary bud (bud is free in ''P. kerrii''), [[stipule]]s foliose, large, intrapetiolar, tubular, normally caduceus, in ''P. kerrii'' scarious, small, basally fused to the petiole, [[Domatium|domatia]] present, [[stoma]]ta irregularly anomocytic
* [[Plant stem|Stem]]s with aggregated rays in the xylem, with nodes septilacunar, [[cork cambium]] present and superficial, [[bud]]s covered by single scale
* [[Plant]]s monoecious, the flowers of each sex in separate inflorescences
* [[Inflorescence]]s <!-- 1-7(-12) --> in large hanging peduncles, each one a unisexual, globular [[pseudanthium|capitulum]], pedunculate or seated, with numerous flowers, derived from the condensation of a panicle, with a circular [[bract]] at the base and [[bracteole]]s among the flowers
* [[Flower]]s small, inconspicuous, hypogynous, regular unisexual, [[Receptacle (botany)|receptacle]] short, smooth, hypogynous disk absent, [[perianth]] reduced, [[sepal]]s  number three to four, rarely eight, free or basally fused, shorter than the petals, triangular. [[Petal]]s number three to four, rarely eight, truncated-spatulate or vestigial, scarious, frequently absent in the female flowers, male flowers with androecium haplostemonous, isostemonous, oppositisepal, with number three to four, rarely eight, [[stamen]]s, [[Column (botany)|gynostemium]] short or vestigial, [[anther]]s basifixed, not versatile, dithecous, tetrasporangiate, elongated, connectivum apically widened, peltate, [[Dehiscence (botany)|dehiscence]] along longitudinal valves; pistillidium sometimes present, female flowers with superior gynoecium <!-- of (3-)5-8(-9) --> [[carpel]]s apocarpous in two or three [[Whorl (botany)|whorl]]s, imperfectly closed apically, surrounded by large petals, linear stylodious, [[Stigma (botany)|stigmas]] internal, decurrent in two ridges, more or less dry, two [[ovule]]s per carpel but one nearly always aborts, orthotropous, bitegmic, crassinucellated, pendulous, apical to marginal [[placentation]],  three or four [[staminode]]s 3-4, no nectaries
* [[Fruit]] in an [[achene]], clavate, grouped in a globular capituliform [[infructescence]], each fruit surrounded by long hairs

<gallery>
Image:Platanus orientalis fruit body 01.jpg|Fruiting body of ''P. orientalis'' (Oriental plane).
Image:American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) 2.jpg|Fruiting body of ''P. occidentalis'' (American sycamore) with some achenes removed
Image:Platanus nucula 01.JPG|An achene
Image:Fruit morphology fruit type - achene (from multiple fruit of achenes Platanus).svg|Cross section of an achene with the seed shown in brown
</gallery>

* [[Seed]]s are small with thin [[Testa (botany)|testa]] with little [[endosperm]], oily and proteinaceous, [[embryo]] thin and straight with two linear cotyledons, often uneven 
* [[Pollen]] in subprolate monads, 16-22 μm in length, tricolpate, sometimes sextarugate, tectate-columellate, reticulated surface, the base layer as thick as the tectum
* [[Chromosome|Chromosomal number]]: ''2n'' = 14, 16, 21, 42; ''x'' probably equal to 7 or 8