sweet gum

Tree up to 120 ft (40m) with very pointy-looking maple-type leaves that smell like pine when rubbed. Fruits are strange spiky balls (not edible). Bark is the part you want- it has a resinous gum in it’s cracks, and is chewed like chewing gum (similar to pine resin) Contains Shikimic acid, which stops flu viruses from reproducing- highest levels in infertile seeds (the yellow ones without wings). B-vitamins, colds, throat, bowel/colon, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, ringworm. Expectorant (helps clear mucus), anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory. Inner bark and resin are used. If no resin is seen, cut to the inner bark and let sap run out and harden. The leaves have been used also, but are high in tannins. Best to soak several times or steam them to help remove tannins.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Liquidambar

a genus of plants of the family Hamamelida-ceae (sometimes attributed to the family Altingiaceae). They are tall deciduous trees with palmatilobate leaves. The small flowers, which are diclinous and lack perianths, are gathered into heads. There are five or six species, distributed in North and South America and in Asia. These trees all exude an aromatic balsam called storax when their bark is damaged. The storax obtained from Liquidambar orientalis and sweet gum (L. styraciflua) is used commercially. Both of these species, which are ornamental, are cultivated on the Black Sea Shore of the Caucasus.

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References in periodicals archive

Keywords: Wood extractives, thermogravimetric analysis, Liquidambar orientalis, storax wood, thermal degradation, natural fire retardants

Thermal behavior of Liquidambar orientalis mill wood before and after extraction processes/Ekstraksiyon islemleri oncesi ve sonrasi Liquidambar orientalis mill. odununun termal davranisi

La copa del liquidambar oculta esta ventana en el cuarto piso y me protege de la mirada recelosa de los otros.

Una mirada a "La tupida copa de un arbol," de Julieta Garcia Gonzalez: entre el voyeurismo, la pareidolia y el exhibicionismo

1), equivalentes a 21[grados]49'55"-21[grados]51'45" N; 99[grados]26'43"-99[grados]27'15" O, que abarcan solo las areas donde aun se observan remanentes de bosque de niebla con predominio de liquidambar. Las altitudes extremas son 1075 y 1325 m.

Estructura y composicion de la vegetacion del bosque de niebla de Copalillos, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Rare at the base of Liquidambar styraciflua (#2066).

The lichen flora of Logan County, Illinois

LR01, EP on Salix sp., Liquidambar orientalis, (ESP-02); LR03, on Populus sp.

Lichen records from La Rioja, Spain

Trees, shrubs, and vines Zones 7-9, 14-17: For vivid autumn color in your garden, now's the time to buy and plant deciduous trees such as birch, Chinese pistache, Chinese tallow, crape myrtle, dogwood, Ginkgo biloba, Japanese maples, liquidambar, persimmon, and 'Raywood' ash; colorful shrubs including deciduous azaleas, barberry, oakleaf hydrangea, smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria), and viburnum; and vines such as grape, Parthenocissus, and wisteria.

What to do in your garden: November

Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is considered a Southern species, but the tree actually grows from Connecticut west to Illinois and Missouri, and south from the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

A new home: while plywood has largely replaced sweetgum in the furniture market it once enjoyed, a new application awaits

Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) seem to be the key ingredients of the woodpecker's habitat.

Ivory-billed woodpecker found "Cached Away"

Come fall, the leaves of the Florida maple (Acer saccharin) blush in brilliant shades of red, bronze and copper, while those of sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) turn bright carmine and deep crimson.

In the garden: in Florida, fall brings blossoming trees, vines and shrubs