Tour Detail

Background
History

The sweetgum is an excellent lawn and street tree with upright growth form, beautiful red, purple and yellow fall colors and distinctive spiny ball fruits. The leaves have a distinct star-shape with five lobes. Sweetgum seeds are eaten by eastern goldfinches, purple finches, sparrows, mourning doves, northern bobwhites and wild turkeys. Chipmunks, red squirrels, and gray squirrels also enjoy its fruits and seeds.

The common name refers to its sweet-smelling sap. The sweetgum is in a small plant family, Altingiaceae, and a genus with only six other species, all of which are found in Asia. The first historical reference of the tree was by Don Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Hernan Cortés in 1519 and spoke of ceremonies between Cortés and Montezuma, who both partook of a liquid amber extracted from a sweetgum tree. Today, sweetgum wood is used for fine furniture and interior finishing, yet once it was commercially produced for soaps, adhesives and pharmaceuticals.