Historic Tree Grove: Henry Ford Sycamore

American Sycamore

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) is a large hardwood tree that can grow to 100 feet in height. The leaves are extremely large, around the size of a dinner plate, and turn yellow in the late fall in Florida. The leaves are lost during the winter and return in spring, followed by round seed pods. The bark of this tree lacks the elasticity found in the bark of other trees, so rather than expanding with the tree, it often sloughs off in large pieces. This does not harm the health of the tree. Sycamores are native to the Eastern U.S.

Henry Ford

Pioneer of the assembly line, Henry Ford revolutionized the automotive industry in the United States by creating a production line that would cost effectively produce vehicles that could be sold at lower costs to the middle class. Ford motor Company released the Model T for $950 in 1908. In the Model T's nineteen years of production, its price dipped as low as $280. Ford doubled wages offered by other manufactures and reduced the average workday to 8 hours in length, instating a three-shift workday which could produce a completed vehicle chassis in just 93 minutes.

Henry Ford (L) with Edison
and Harvey Firestone, 1929

Ford's affordable Model T irrevocably altered American society. As more Americans owned cars, urbanization patterns changed. The United States saw the growth of suburbia, the creation of a national highway system, and a population entranced with the possibility of going anywhere, anytime.

In Florida, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were next-door neighbors. Thomas Alva Edison bought property beside the Caloosahatchee River in southwestern Florida in 1885 where he had a winter home constructed. Henry Ford bought the adjoining property in 1916 and used the house named “The Mangoes” as a winter retreat. Their estates have been combined and can be visited in Fort Myers, Florida. Learn more about the Ford Edison Winter Estates here.

Henry Ford Sycamore

At Henry Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan estate, this sycamore's parent tree stands in Jensen's Meadow.

Industrial Garden

To combat the rising price of rubber for car tires, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison combined efforts at their Florida estates to research latex-producing plants that could be grown in North America. They were attempting to find plant materials that could be used to produce rubber efficiently, as it was needed in huge quantities in Ford's Model T factories.

They found an answer in goldenrod (Henry Ford even gifted Thomas Edison with a Model T equipped with tires made of goldenrod latex), but the discovery was quickly overshadowed when rubber began to be manufactured from petroleum instead. This garden highlights the plants that produce latex, integral to the production of natural rubber, with many of the species planted inside stacks of recycled tires.

• Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) - Goldenrod species yield large amounts of latex, and Edison actually hybridized his own species (Solidago edisoniana) that grew four times as tall and produced twice as much latex as other species. Since this species is not available commercially today, our garden features native Florida goldenrod species like Seaside Goldenrod, Canada Goldenrod, and Chapman’s Goldenrod.
• Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) - The Mangoes is renowned for its enormous Banyan tree, a member of the Ficus family. Edison experimented with these trees for their latex. As an additional tree is not practical in this garden, have included smaller Ficus species, along with Baby Rubber Plant (Peperomia obtusfolia), a Florida native.
• Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) - Milkweed species contain 1 - 2 % natural rubber, and were explored as a natural rubber source.

Henry Ford Sycamore Art and Artists

The art for the informational signs was created by local artist Holly Bird.

Henry Ford Sycamore bench art was created by a young Tampa artist, Holly Simon.

Learn more about Henry Ford: