American Sweetgum
( also commonly known as Redgum, Sapgum, Starleaf-gum, or Bilsted )
​Liquidambar styraciflua

Medium-sized, deciduous tree native in the U.S. from southeastern Connecticut, New Jersey, and southeastern Pennsylvania, south to Florida and east to eastern Texas.
  • ​Size at Maturity:  ​ 60' to 75' tall(up to 150' in the wild), 40' to 60' wide; medium to fast growth rate, sometimes 2'-3' in a season
  • Light requirement:  Full sun to part shade (6 or more hours of sun best)
  • Soil moisture:  prefers moist, well drained, slightly acidic, and rich/fertile soils; easily grows in average even clay soils.
  • Seasonal interest:  Sweetgums are most prized for their beautiful fall color in shades of yellow, orange, red and purple.
  • Value to wildlife:  The sweetgum flowers, while insignificant, attract bees and other pollinators, turning into the easily recognized spikey gumballs containing its seeds.   The small seeds are eaten by numerous bird species, squirrels, and chipmunks.  The luna moth and many other moth species use sweetgum as a larval host plant.
  • Value to environment:  Sweetgum tolerates some road salt, wet sites, and occasional flooding and makes an excellant shade tree.
Sweetgum is valued for its handsome, high quality, hard wood, often used as a veneer for plywood and for furniture and flooring.  The sap (or "gum") is used in perfumes, making medicines and salves to cure a variety of ailments, treat wounds, make adhesives, incense, and chewing gum.   The gumballs, while annoying to those wishing to walk barefoot, are slow to break down and are useful for mulch and are often added to the bottom of garden pots to provide drainage and reduce the amount of soil required in the pot.