Sweet Gum Tree Fruit

If you re afraid of the messy gumballs or seed pods produced by many sweetgums look for a non fruiting variety of this popular tree.

Sweet gum tree fruit. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation. It takes the sweet gum tree 20 to 30 years to mature enough to produce its fruit. Flowers and fruits are inconspicuous details l.

The liquidambar styraciflua growth rate is moderate to rapid. If you have more than one sweet. A notable exception is rotundiloba liquidambar styraciflua rotundiloba usda zones 5 through 9 which is a sterile female cultivar that does not produce fruits. Sweet gum trees have various medicinal uses.

It s called sweet gum to separate it from a different species altogether the black gum. The trees spike ball fruit is almost as telltale for identification as the star shaped leaves. Genus liquidambar are deciduous trees grown for their alternate maple like leaves which take on brilliant and long lasting autumn colour. Styraciflua is a deciduous tree to 20m tall broadly conical in outline with rather glossy maple like 5 to 7 lobed leaves which turn to shades of orange crimson and purple in autumn.

The gum has long been harvested and used for chewing gum but it is also known to have anti inflammatory properties. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. 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. Their fruit is effective against rheumatic pain.

Despite its name the gum is not sweet. American sweetgum 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 is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern united states and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. Sweet gum a tree of the witch hazel family hamamelidaceae native of the eastern united states also mexico and central america.

It is recognizable by the combination. Gum resin from the trees has. The alternate palmate shiny leaves have usually five pointed finely. Sweetgum are native to the southeastern united states and belong to the altingiaceae family.

The bark has astringent properties and addresses dysentery and diarrhea. You painfully find them with your feet. While you wait the tree has much to offer. American sweetgum are deciduous trees prized for their star shaped leaves that turn a mix of brilliant fall colors.

It is not however sweet. The sweet gum got its name for the resinous sap that results when you score its bark. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. Along the rivers of the south eastern united states sweet gums exceed 125 ft.

In height and 4 ft. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation.