American sweetgum or simply sweetgum has the scientific name liquidambar styraciflua and belongs to the altingiaceae family. Its name comes from the smell of chewing gum that comes from cuts on the tree.
The tree has alternate leaves, scalloped palm leaves that ripen into a beautiful shiny star shape. The color then changes to bright red, purple, yellow, or orange in the fall and early winter.
The trunk is usually straight and pyramidal, as it does not split in two except for small branches on young trees.
Since it usually grows in a very straight form, this makes sweetgum a good species for lumber, furniture, instrument parts and veneers.
Sweetgum is a deciduous tree that grows 80 to 120 feet tall and over 4 feet in diameter.
It produces round, spiny fruit heads known as gumballs. It is composed of many small capsules, each containing one or two winged seeds.
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