Sweet Gum Tree Bark

Sweetgum makes a nice conical park campus or residential shade tree for large properties when it is young developing a more oval or rounded canopy as it grows.

Sweet gum tree bark. Keep your tree vigorous as healthy trees are resistant to canker disease. The tree ranges between 80 to 150 feet in height. Several cankers form on the bark of sweet gum trees resulting in lesions that may become sunken with roughened bark that peels from the tree. It thrives well in both acidic soil and alkaline soil and ponds and streams are its predominant areas.

This means that any damage sustained to the trunk that results in a substantial loss of bark will certainly have an effect on the performance of the tree. It is used for its lumber and is one of the most common sources of hardwood and plywood but also produces spectacular colors as it drops its leaves in the fall. Look for the star shaped leaf as foliage grows in the spring and look for the dried seed balls under the tree. Turkey tail fungus trametes versicolor is found on cut or fallen wood or on wounded areas of living sweet gum trees.

Sorry to hear about your sweet gum tree. Prune branches back 6 to 8 inches below the infected bark. The bark becomes deeply ridged at about 25 years old. Sweet gum a tree of the witch hazel family hamamelidaceae native of the eastern united states also mexico and central america.

In scientific nomenclature the sweet gum tree is called liquidambar styraciflua. Botryosphaeria canker may cause branch dieback cosmetic damage and even the death of the tree. It typically colonizes the sapwood of trees stressed by drought sunburn or. The sweetgum is a monoecious species and is.

In height and 4 ft. The trunk is normally straight and does not divide into double or multiple leaders and side branches are small in diameter on young trees creating a pyramidal form. 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. The sweetgum is a fast growing tree that develops a significant taproot that tolerate high moisture levels in soil.

Along the rivers of the south eastern united states sweet gums exceed 125 ft. Remove and destroy any fallen leaves or branches. The outer layer of bark on a tree functions to protect the living layers that lie just beneath it. This name was derived from the tree s innate property of secreting a resin like substance.

It is a deciduous tree that can be found in southeastern u s as well as southern mexico and central america. Liquidambar styraciflua is known as the american sweetgum. 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. Sweetgum liquidambar is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family altingiaceae though formerly often treated in the hamamelidaceae.

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