365 Urban Species. #284: Sweetgum

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: the Riverway, near Landmark Center, Boston.

Urban species #284: Sweetgum Liquidambar styraciflua

Star shaped leaves turning an array of colors, and branches decorated with spiky spheres. That's the sweetgum tree. It's a popular choice in city parks across the eastern United States and California. Sweetgum is not especially cold tolerant, and Boston is about as far north as it will survive. This tree is native to North America, Mexico, and South America, and closely related species occur in China, and Turkey. Sweetgum trees are named for their sap, which has been used for various medicinal purposes, and reportedly, as a chewing gum. Modern experimenters have little positive to say about this last use.

Different varieties of sweetgum have been cultivated for their foliage, which can vary from yellow to red to purple in autumn, and can retain their leaves later than other deciduous trees. One sweetgum tree we saw one November in London seemed to have leaves of every fall color imaginable. The spiked balls that appear at the end of summer are the fruit of the sweetgum. Inside the tough green hide, seeds develop. Later it becomes woody, and the winged seeds are released from holes that form when the spikes open like tiny beaks. Sweetgum seeds are eaten by birds and squirrels. The fruit also contains a chemical which is the source for the antiviral drug Tamiflu, of interest recently because of avian flu concerns.

Comments

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

I thought these were sycamores?!? My dad planted two of these - their spiky seed balls are unmistakable enough - in our front yard when I was a kid. They're quite tall now.

Is sweetgum the only name for these trees? Or did my parents just lie to me all these years? (entirely possible, btw)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Nope, although sycamores have a somewhat similar leaf and fruit shape. The spiky balls could be confusing, but the bark of a sycamore tree is very distinctive.

[momomom.livejournal.com]

Sycamore balls are round.

Sweetgum is also called Liquid Amber.

[skullfaced.livejournal.com]

My brother always found it amusing to throw the fruit at me and get it stuck in my hair. I can never forget this tree.

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

I refer to the seed as medieval pom-poms.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

They're rife over here in West Oz as well, mostly as shade trees in parking lots, but we call them "Liquid Ambars". They're one of the few Aussie trees to do the 'Autumn Colours' thing...

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Heee. I used to always let my toy koalas climb the sweetgum in our yard, because it was as close as they could get to the gum trees they had in their homeland.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Heee!

[nutmeg.livejournal.com]

My brother used to throw ripe sycamore drupes at me.

They explode.

They fly everywhere.

And they itch. I prefer Sweet Gum to spiky balls to Sycamore balls.

Although I like both trees equally well.

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

We have an awesome one of those on my college campus outside the lecture center. It turns every single different color this time of year, and I call it the gay rainbow tree :D