 The lack of old native names for it has been used to demonstrate its absence in Britain before introduction in around 1487 , but this is challenged by the presence of an old Scottish Gaelic name for the tree , fior chrann which suggests a longer presence in Scotland at least as far back as the Gaelic settlement at Dál Riata in the late 6th and early 7th centuries . This would make it either an archaeophyte ( a naturalised tree introduced by humans before 1500 ) or perhaps native if it can be seen to have reached Scotland without human intervention . At the moment it is usually classified as a neophyte , a plant that is naturalised but arrived with humans on or after the year 1500 . Today , the sycamore is present in 3 @,@ 461 ( 89 @.@ 7 % ) of hectads in Britain , more than any native tree species . 
