PlantFiles: Sweetgum, Red Gum, Liquid Amber
Liquidambar styraciflua

This morning, on my walk through the park, I once again stepped on one of those horrid seed pods, twisted my ankle, fell hard to the pavement, injuring my knee, wrist, and scraping my hands. This is at least the third time this has happened to me in the last decade. Cities around here planted these trees everywhere back in the 60s as street trees. (Though the one that caused me trouble today is in someone's backyard, but overhangs the park, which is where I had my fall this morning.) Everyone I know who lives here hates them. The pods puncture bike tires, people fall on them, they get stuck in stroller wheels; and the roots tear up lawns and sidewalks. The autumn color is pretty, but beyond that, they are really not a particularly nice shape for a street tree -- and they are a hazard to pedestrians. They are probably great trees if you have a big piece of property, where you can see them from a distance, and not worry about the roots and the seed pods, but in a dense suburb they are the worst trees ever.

This tree was for sale at a local garden center so I thought I would give it a try. I have been trying to get something with maple like leafs to grow here. I'm in the desert at 1800 feet. Sunset zone 12, soil is about PH 7.5, sandy and fast draining, in a wash, so it gets flooded about 10 times a year. Full sun. The tree has been in the ground about 2 years. It is not doing well, and may be dead. I will find out next spring. It looses all its leafs in August. Has problems with heat and soil. There are a lot of days over 110F. Growing next to Freemont and Lance leaf cottonwoods who are tolerating the conditions. Not a good tree for the desert.

I live in a wooded area in Virginia. The sweetgum tree is about the worst piece of vegetation on my property. I've twisted my ankle a number of times on the seed pods (gumballs). They do have a nice purple color during the fall, but they are a messy tree. The last time I had a diseased tree removed I also had the tree service cut down and remove a number of sweetgum trees around my deck.

I Live in a house in NC with a 1.5 acre front yard where 7 sweetgum trees were planted in 1942 when the house was built so they are now huge trees. Who in their right mind would plant 7 of these nasty sweetgum ball trees. We will have to rake up sweetgum balls from late January till the first week in May. It is back breaking and i am now disabled and can no longer rake them. yes, it is back breaking labor and they are exremely heavy in large piles to bag for even the healthiest grown man and they can be sharp like a razor if one of their spikes get under your finger nailbeds ouch!!. just a nasty buck eye ball like pod producing tree.

I have a sweet gum tree in my side yard that is about 80 to 100 ft tall. I Love this tree but there is a problem!!! We moved in to this house and the tree was already here, and it has this huge vine that is growing in it. The vine has pretty much taken over the tree. The other thing is that the base of the tree has a hole in it. I will try to get a picture on here so you can see, but the base is split right after the hole. In other words there is like two trees growing from one base. I have no idea if this tree can be saved but I would really like to if possible.Could someone please help with this? Can this tree be saved or is it pretty much history? The hole at the bottom of the tree almost looks like a hobbit home if that helps.LOL

This tree is definitely hardy well into zone 5. We had big, old trees all over Missouri when I was a kid (about 40 years ago), in areas only recently reclassed as zone 6 due to climate change. Many of those trees are still standing.

While I'm not crazy about the spiked balls, the autumn color and scent of the foliage, especially after a rain, make it worthwhile in my opinion.

My mom planted one of these in our backyard when I was little. It is now about 20 years old. I would say that it is kind of a slow grower in my region. In Houston, we don't really see the 4 seasons (it goes from summer to winter it seems!!) so any tree that gives good fall color is a plus in my book. Just watch out for the spiny balls.

As for suckers or offshoots, in all 20 years of having this tree, this was the first year a little tree started to grow off one of the surface roots. I wanted to try and harvest it somehow to make 2 trees, but there was no way to remove it without cutting it off of the main trees root. Oh well.

I have many of those on my front yard. Beautiful! I LOVE the little balls, and so do the goldfinches that flock to my garden all winter long and hang onto them to eat the seeds.

I also found out those are GREAT SLUG REPELLANTS. Just circle your affected plants with the pods and slugs will stay away!

I have at least ten acres of these on my 36-acre patch of north Florida, and they are trying to take over everything. They are attractive, fast-growing, producing some winter color -- but they also sucker like mad. I have about a 6-acre patch of solid sweetgum, skinny trees about 50-60 feet tall and very thin and very close together; most of them if not all seem to share a root system, rather like a grove of aspen in the high Rockies. Between the "gum ball" spiky seed-bearing fruit and the long-ranging roots (suckers thirty feet or more from the nearest tree, and I pulled up the connecting root so they weren't seedlings) mine spread great distances and are not easily removed.

These trees are native as far south as Honduras (in the mountains there, mind you). The wood is vastly underrated as a cabinet wood: it is quite lovely but almost never offered; it used to be sold as "satin walnut" due to the satiny look the interlocked grain provides. As firewood, the logs' unwillingness to split (interlocked grain again) makes them less than desirable, although they burn well and with reasonable heat value. I'm told that logs and stumps are good for growing shiitake mushrooms on.

Maybe some cultivars or hybrids or other members of the genus don't produce the spiky balls and don't sucker. The species, at least here, is more of a nuisance than a tree to be sought out and planted on purpose.

Sweetgum, Red Gum Liquidambar styraciflua is native to Texas and other States. This is a beautiful tree.

Great fall color! I like the interesting star shaped leaves in the summer and the unique bark in the winter. Planted 2 trees in the front yard AWAY from my house and so far they have grown wonderfully. I would keep this tree away from anything you don't want the gum balls to fall on.

According to the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, the hardened sap that exudes from wounds in the tree has been used as a substitute for chewing gum in the South.

When I first moved into this new house I planted 2 Sweetgum trees in the front lawn.
They are seldom seen around here and I liked the shape, autumn color and quick growth.
Fortunately my trees produce very few seed.
The leaves have a nice evergreen fragrance when crushed and the bark on young branches has long cork like spines, interesting.
Now, 19 years later there are some shallow roots that make mowing tricky but otherwise I'm very pleased.
They have withstood 80 MPH winds, drought and blizzards with little damage.
Andy P

This tree is very common here in S.Alabama. It grows along roadsides everywhere(which is why it is never planted). The seed balls can be a nuisance to some people.However,it is a fast growing tree for shade. Sweetgums seem to tolerate high winds very well. I saw very few of them blown over after the hurricanes.

In response to the negative comment,
This tree is native to much of the northern half of the state of Florida. As for the fall color, there are numerous pictures online to prove it's a beautiful tree in the fall.

Commercial value? It's valuable alright! Second only to oak amongst hardwoods for furniture, flooring etc.

It's not an invasive species and could hardly be considered a weed in zone 10. I think it would struggle to even survive in southwest florida where the negative commentor is. It's a fast growing shade tree, and seems to do o.k. here although I lost a few. Still not sure what happened to them but I really don't think they like this horrible fill they haul in here even though they supposedly tolerate a wide variety of soils, the only specimins I had succeed where on natural ground.

On mature trees, the seedballs are problematic for some people and if you use a rotary mower, you would want to look out for them.

Even though it produces the stickery seed balls, I still love this tree. It has glorious autumn color here in West KY and the trees are so uniform in shape, they look like beautiful columns of red or gold.

When my Mom sold the farm where we grew up, one of the things I transplanted to my yard was a Sweetgum seedling dug from the fencerows. It has rewarded me with a lovely maroon showing this year, and though it is much too small yet to produce seedballs, it is in a corner of the property, away from walkways and gutters.

Tree's pretty much considered a weed here. When I lived in Maryland, I thought so there, too. Seed pods are a genuine nusiance and the fall color--even among the patented cultivars--isn't that great. It may have commercial value, but I've never hear of it if it does.

This tree is an absolute pest, grows like a weed. I swore if I bought another house I'd remove every one of them. I bought a new house and never found one, thank heavens. I hate the spikey balls, I'm a 'bare foot' person.
One redeaming factor, it generally has fablious fall color. I guess if you keep it away frm people, it would be ok.

I am in northeast Ohio, and it grows wonderfully here - our zone is 5. hope that helps someone else out wanting to grow it, as it says lowest zones 6 here. ~ Laurrie

One of the few trees native to the deep south that gives dependable Fall color, though some years more intensely than others.

A tree with gorgeous fall foliage (our neighbors have two in their front yards, and every fall I get "Sweetgum envy". But I also get their bagged leaves a few weeks later; dealing with the stickery seedballs always dampens my desire to have one in my yard!

I recently came across some interesting information for eliminating the seedballs. A product called 'Florel' made by Monterey Lawn & Garden can be sprayed on while the tree is in full bloom, and will supposedly eliminate the formation of fruit. One source says timing is crucial, and the application should occur just as the tiny balls form below the catkin.

This is a tall, stately tree. Normally, the sweet gum reaches a height of 80 to 100 feet. When mature, its straight trunk is 3 to 4 feet thick at the base. Sweet gum leaves are deeply lobed and star-shaped. They turn gold, red, or a deep crimson in autumn. The fruit is a brownish, spiny ball that remains on the tree through the winter. The sweet gum is so named because it produces a gummy compound, called storax, that is used in making perfumes, adhesives, and salves. Sweet gum wood is fairly hard and heavy. People use it to make veneer, cabinets, and other products.I love the tree but the spiny ball's are a problem.