Sweetgum - Not Available

Price listed is for 10 seedlings.

SWEETGUM (Liquidambar styraciflua)- Sweetgum, also known as redgum, grows throughout the state on rich river bottoms and in swamps subject to frequent overflow. It also grows in drier uplands under elevations of 3,000 feet. On most sites, the tree averages 60 to 80 feet in height and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Sweetgum is easily recognized by its star-shaped leaves made up of five (occasionally seven) deeply separated, pointed lobes. This tree puts on quite a show in autumn, when its leaves turn to various shades of yellow, red, and purple. Its wood is heavy, moderately hard, close-grained and not durable to exposure. Sweetgum wood is used for furniture, interior finish, paper pulp, veneers and for baskets. Veneers of the heartwood are largely used in furniture, sometimes as imitation mahogany or circassian walnut. Squirrels and chipmunks eat the seeds, which mature on the tree from July to September. In late fall, after the seed balls have opened, quail, doves and wood ducks eat the seeds that fall to the ground. Squirrels eat the buds in the spring.