Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Saxifragales > Altingiaceae > Liquidambar > Liquidambar styraciflua

Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Liquidambar styraciflua, commonly called American sweetgum, sweetgum, sweet gum, sweet-gum (sweet gum in the UK), hazel pine, American-storax, bilsted, red-gum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, or alligator-wood is a deciduous tree in the genus Liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern North America and tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America. Sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern United States, and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. It is recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard, spiked fruits. It is currently classified in the plant family Altingiaceae, but was formerly considered a member of the Hamamelidaceae.
View Wikipedia Record: Liquidambar styraciflua

Infraspecies

Liquidambar styraciflua var. mexicana
Liquidambar styraciflua var. styraciflua

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  None
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Carbon Capture [1]  Medium-Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  82 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Medium-High
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium
Bloom Period [2]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  6 months
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Janka Hardness [4]  850 lbf (386 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  36 inches (91 cm)
Scent [3]  An aromatic gum is exuded from the bark. The leaves emit a balsam-like fragrance when they fall in the autumn, this is retained until the leaves are quite withered.
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  82080 / lb (180955 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.52
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  The aromatic resin 'Storax' is obtained from the trunk of this tree; It forms in cavities of the bark and also exudes naturally. It is harvested in autumn; Production can be stimulated by beating the trunk in the spring; The resin has a wide range of uses including medicinal, incense, perfumery, soap and as an adhesive; It is also chewed and used as a tooth cleaner; Wood - heavy, fairly hard, fine-grained, not strong, light, tough, resilient. It weighs about 37lb per cubic foot; The wood takes a high polish and can be stained then used as a cherry, mahogany or walnut substitute; It is also used for furniture, flooring, fruit dishes, veneer etc;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Flower Color [2]  Green
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  82 feet (25 m)
Width [3]  49 feet (15 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 6 Low Temperature: -10 F° (-23.3 C°) → 0 F° (-17.8 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Liquidambar styraciflua

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 9Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 10New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 11Sciurus niger, John L. Koprowski, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 479, pp. 1-9 (1994)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0