Sweet Gum - Liquidambar styraciflua
Witch-Hazel Family: Hamamelidaceae
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Sweet Gum at Crooked Creek, Alpharetta, Georgia, USA.
Sweet Gum at Crooked Creek, Alpharetta, Georgia, USA.

Sweet Gum is native to the eastern United States and as far south as Guatemala. The four species in this genus have globose flowers and globose, pendulous fruits which are aggregates of beaked capsules. The leaves are much like Maple Leaves, but are alternate. Grows 80-100 feet.

Sweet Gum fall foliage
Sweet Gum fall foliage is a riot of molten-lava oranges and yellows

Sweet Gum is an important timber tree, second in production only to oaks among the hardwoods. It is used in furniture making, cabinetwork, veneer, plywood, pulpwood, barrels and boxes. In olden days, a gum was obtained by peeling the bark and scraping off the resinlike solid. The gum was used for chewing and as a base for medicines. "Storax", a fragrant resin used in perfumes, is made from a close relative, the Oriental Sweetgum.

Sweet Gum Tree
Morton Arboretum Sweet-Gum, acc. 545-58*2 is 52 years old

Sweet Gum Fruit Husk
Sweet Gum Fruit Husk: "Capsules many, fused at base into long-pedunculate, spheric, echinate heads, 2-beaked, glabrous, septicidal. " [2]

The Witch-Hazel Family (Hamamelidaceae) has about 100 species in 23 genera of shrubs and trees native to both tropical and warm temperate regions. There are 2 trees and 5 shrubs native to North America.

 

Sweet Gum Tree
This Sweet Gum was started from seed 25 years ago

Sweet Gum is also commonly called "redgum" and "sapgum". Leaves have a resinous, sweet odor when crushed.
Habitat: Moist soils of valleys and slopes; in mixed woodlands. Often a pioneer tree after clear-cut logging, clearing, and old farm fields.

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References
  1. eFloras.org, Flora of North America,"Hamalidaceae"
  2. eFloras.org, Flora of North America, "Liquidambar Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 999. 1753"
 
 
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