Sweet Gum Tree Bark Identification

Sweetgum is easy to identify in both summers and in winter.

Sweet gum tree bark identification. The american sweetgum gets its scientific and common name from the gummy sap that is found directly under that bark and seeps out when the tree is wounded. The bark on the trunk is light gray in color with deep rounded ridges. The liquidambar styraciflua growth rate is. This resin is sometimes called liquid amber because of its golden color and sweet odor.

The bark of the american sweetgum is a gray brown color and becomes more and more ridged fissured with increasing age. Ridges tend to form definitively for trees at about 25 years old. Sweetgum liquidambar is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family altingiaceae though formerly often treated in the hamamelidaceae. The trunk of a mature gum tree may be five feet in diameter.

A mature eucalyptus may take the form of a low shrub or a very large tree. Sweet gum trees may reach heights from 80 to 150 feet and they may spread to 45 feet wide. Many but far from all are known as gum trees because many species exude copious sap from any break in the bark e g. The alternate palmate shiny leaves have usually five pointed finely.

In height and 4 ft. Along the rivers of the south eastern united states sweet gums exceed 125 ft. They are all large deciduous trees 25 to 40 m tall with palmately 5 to 7 lobed leaves arranged spirally on the stems and length of 12 5 to 20 cm having a pleasant aroma when crushed. American sweetgum liquidambar styraciflua also known as american storax hazel pine bilsted redgum satin walnut star leaved gum alligatorwood or simply sweetgum is a deciduous tree in the genus liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern north america and tropical montane regions of mexico and central america.

Sweet gum a tree of the witch hazel family hamamelidaceae native of the eastern united states also mexico and central america. Younger trees on the other hand tend to have smoother bark and occasionally displace cork like projections as shown in the picture. Sweet gum description a sweet gum is a deciduous tree in the witch hazel family that ranges in height from 60 to 100 feet and has a narrow oval canopy. The american sweet gum tree liquidambar styraciflua grows in eastern woodlands from southern connecticut to northern illinois to texas to central florida.

Sweetgum is sometimes called redgum probably because of the red color of the older heartwood and its red fall leaves. In north america their range. Sweetgum grows from connecticut southward throughout the east to central florida and eastern texas and is a very common commercial timber species of the south. Sycamore trees are also distinguished by their large patches of smooth bark which has a creamy camo appearance from its mix yellow tan and gray.

The deeply cut grey or brownish grey bark forms winged projections on the twigs.