Tree Highlight: Sweetgum
Sweetgum
Liquidambar styraciflua (Family Hamamelidaceae)
The sweetgum has distinctive star-shaped leaves and spiky fruits
The basics
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is one of the most valuable trees of southeastern U.S. forests and is an excellent shade tree found in city streets and parks. Its native range extends from Connecticut southward throughout Florida and eastern Texas, to the tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America. Sweetgum can grow up to 130 feet in the forests, around 75 feet in cultivation, and can live up to 400 years. It has very characteristic star-shaped leaves and spiked, globose fruits, composed of multiple seed capsules. This tree is also known for its chewy sap and foliage color in the fall.
Did you know?
- Aromatic gum oozes from the tree where it gets wounded!
- Its leaves turn gold, red, pink, and purple in the fall.
- Sweetgum fruits are the perfect shape to be decorated and used as holiday ornaments!
Sweetgum leaves have a beautiful red color in the fall
Sweetgum leaves are on the menu for the luna moth caterpillar
Wildlife
- The bark of sweetgums, soft and rich in sugar, is very appreciated by beavers and occasionally white-tailed deer.
- Squirrels, chipmunks, American goldfinches, and other species of birds love to eat the small seeds.
- Caterpillars of large moths such as the luna moth, the regal moth, and the imperial moth eat sweetgum foliage.
Uses
- The aromatic, resinous, sap (called storax or styrax) is used to make medicine, perfume, and incense.
- Sweetgum is a favorite ornamental tree thanks to the shade it provides and its multi-colored foliage in the fall.
Its beautiful wood is used for plywood, veneer, cabinets, and furniture.
- Among Cherokee people, sweetgum resin and its inner bark are used as an anti-inflammatory and treatment for wounds.
Bark of then sweetgum tree
Benefits
- Over a 20-year period, a healthy sweetgum with a diameter of 20 inches will offset 7,504 car miles worth of CO2, absorb enough stormwater to fill 1,579 bathtubs, and remove an amount of pollution from the air - in gaseous and particulate form - equivalent in weight to 106 smartphones! Learn more at: https://mytree.itreetools.org/
Sweetgum Tree of the Week video
By University of Kentucky Forestry and Natural Resources Extension.
Click to watchContact us: ufi@uky.edu
Images sourced from forestyimages.org
