Sweetgum

Liquidambar styraciflua

Size: 3g, 5g, & 7g availability

Tree
Max size: 60’ tall x 30’ wide
Average size: 50′ tall x 25′ wide

Usually Moist, Moist to Dry, Very Dry
Clay, Loam, Sand
Sun, Part Shade
No Salt Tolerance

AKA: Redgum

This deciduous tree has a yellow and dark red fall color and inconspicuous spring blooms. In the fall, it gets an inedible brown burrish seed pod. It is a hurricane wind-resistant tree with interesting foliage and a fragrance. The leaves are resinous and can stain cement, and it can be clonal, so it is best planted away from the house and foot traffic. It is a larval host plant for luna moths (Actias luna).

The wood is nicknamed “stain-walnut” in the trade and is used for; flooring, furniture, veneers, construction, boxes, sewing machines, cabinets, molding, vehicle parts, tobacco boxes, and more. The Liquidambar gum (AKA copalm balm or storax) is obtained from the inner bark after wounding or gashing the tree. The gum has a long history of being used by Indigenous people, and is still used today. Cherokee people would chew the hardened gum and passed it on to settlers as a “chewing gum”. It also has medicinal uses such as: poultice to cure cuts and bruises; poultice on skin problems; decoction of bark for “Night Sickness”; inner bark made into a salve for wounds, sores, and itch; bark infusion to treat dysentery.