Welcome to your Sutton Farms!
Sweet Gum
Liquidambar styraciflua
Photo courtesy of Eastern Illinois University.
The sweet gum is a large, native, aromatic tree becoming 60 to 120 feet in height, with a trunk from 2 to 4 feet in diameter. In the open it develops a very symmetric pyramidal crown, with spreading and almost horizontal branches persisting rather low on the tapering, continuous trunk. When growing in the forests, the trunks are straight and clean, with a rather small lofty crown.
LEAVES: The leaves are alternate, simple, distinctly and beautifully star-shaped, maple-like and quite pleasantly fragrant when crushed. They are usually 5-lobed with tapering, pointed lobes which are finely toothed on the margins with 5 main veins from a notched base. The leaves are shiny dark green above, paler beneath, turning red and gold in autumn.
SEEDS: A long-stalked pendulant seedball composed of many individual fruits each ending in 2 long curved prickly points. Each compartment of these seedballs contains many small, winged seeds. The seedballs mature in autumn and persist into winter. The sharp, pointed, woody capsules give them a spiny appearance. The seeds are eaten by songbirds, squirrels and by wild turkey, chipmunks, songbirds, squirrels and bobwhite in rural and suburban areas.
If you take some of the closed-up, newly fallen, green or brown seedballs into your home, within a short time they open and dispel the seeds. Put them in a ziplock baggie with a wet paper towel at the base, and in a few months they will germinate. You will be able to grow your own sweet gum tree! In October and November the fallen leaves are beautiful red and gold stars that cover the park walkways and grasses. In every season the Liquidambar is a beautiful tree.
RANGE: Extreme Sw. Connecticut south to Central Florida, west to E. Texas, and north to S. Illinois. Grows rapidly in many soil types.
USES: Both common and scientific names allude to the sap that exudes from cuts in the bark. Hardened clumps of this gum are chewed by some people, as it was chewed by Native Americans and the early pioneers. In pioneer days, the gum was obtained from the trunks by peeling the bark and scraping off the resinlike solid. This gum was used medicinally as well as for chewing gum. Commercial storax, a fragrant resin used in perfumes and medicines, is from the related Oriental sweet gum (Liquidambar orientalis Mill.) of western Asia.
An important timber tree, sweet gum is second in production only to oaks among hardwoods. Sweet gum lumber is used for interiors, woodenware, boats, toys, boxes and fuel.
The trees are between 12" and 24" tall when shipped... And shipped Bare Root...
Shipping and planting times are winter and spring months. Please choose from following months: November thru April. But we will make exceptions with limited warranties due to heat during shipping.
And, any tree shipped during normal green and growth months... Which is May through October is going to arrive with brown, burned leaves. They will recover and go green again, but they are going to look dead on arrival.
PRICING AS FOLLOWS:
2 Sweet Gum Trees = $12.95 plus $9.50 s/h.
10 Sweet Gum Trees = $33.95 plus $12.50 s/h.
25 Sweet Gum Trees = $49.95 plus $20.00 s/h.
50 Sweet Gum Trees = $89.95 plus $25.00 s/h.
100 Sweet Gum Trees = $178.00 plus $32.50 s/h.
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If you have any questions, please send email
to jlsutton@apex.net. |
