Gum Tree Spiky Balls

The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter.

Gum tree spiky balls. The spines help protect the seeds from being eaten by critters like birds and squirrels. When the spikes open the seeds. Hardy in usda zones 4 through 9 it needs a large. Although they may look like prickly little seeds sweet gum tree balls are actually the fruit of the tree.

Just like leaves they must fall so the tree can prep for new growth. For instance yesterday i finally looked up tree with spiky balls yeah i giggled a little inside at the search terms. At first green and somewhat fuzzy looking they dry into brown bristly balls. Liquidambar styraciflua commonly known as the sweet gum tree is one of the most easily recognizable trees native to missouri.

If you have more than one sweet. Eastern sycamore platanus occidentalis native to the eastern united states is one of north america s most massive trees. Those spiny balls seed pods dropped by your sweet gum tree can actually be put to good use. The one major flaw of this deciduous tree is the hundreds of spiny woody.

The spiky clusters are actually balls of fruit with tiny seeds inside that birds and squirrels snack on. However the search is long overdue. A full grown sweet gum changing color. All are common landscape trees and produce spiny pods around their seeds.

Here s what each of the pods look like. This is a guide about uses for sweet gum balls. Buckeye horsechestnut aesculus chestnut castanea or sweet gum liquidambar styraciflua. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers.

I ve twisted my ankle on them. A notable exception is rotundiloba liquidambar styraciflua rotundiloba usda zones 5 through 9 which is a sterile female cultivar that does not produce fruits. If you ve encountered some round spiny balls under a tree or maybe still on the plant and you re wondering what it could be it s likely one of several options. A fast growing tree the sweetgum offers plenty of shade while growing well in a vast range of soils and moisture levels.

These trees and their little spiked balls of fruit or gumballs have been preventing missourians from walking outside barefoot for centuries. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. Sycamore trees platanus spp have round 1 1 2 inch diameter spiky looking balls but the spikes aren t fierce and sharp. We ve taken hundreds of walks in our neighborhood and have run into the same patches of spiky balls countless times.

Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller branches sometimes all winter. They dangle from branches on long stems. This means that only one tree is needed for the flowers to be pollinated and a single tree can produce the spiky fruits even when another sweet gum tree is not in sight. It reaches 75 to 100 feet tall with trunk diameters from 3 to 8 feet wide.

These compound seed capsules are often confused with the seed heads of the.