The gums are an important part of the eastern hardwood forests and are found throughout the southeastern u s.
Is sweet gum a soft or hardwood tree.
Sweet gum is a native species to the southeast.
However it can be a pioneer tree species and will be one of the first species to recolonize an open area but if you leave succession to do its part you will see that sweet gum certainly do not take over in the long run.
Although soft woods such as radiata pine are still the dominant tree for plantations eucalypts such as shining gum tasmanian blue gum black butt flooded gum mountain ash and white gum are being grown in increasing volume for hardwood timber and high grade paper pulp.
Such trees can grow to be as old as 400 years old and they can reach towering heights of 150 feet.
Timber from the sweet gum tree is a finely textured moderately heavy white colored sapwood with a light pink tint.
Trees vary in height the shape of their canopies type of foliage fall color flowers or fruit as well as other.
Red gum lumber is considered a specialty product and not quoted in the market reports.
As you learned earlier sweet gum is easily identifiable as it comes from a tree that produces star shaped leaves that contain five points along with spiked fruit.
Hmmm that s not all true.
Its heartwood is variable and ranges from dark brown to a lighter reddish brown.
Facts on the sweet gum tree.
It is not an invasive species.
American sweetgum liquidambar styraciflua also known as american storax hazel pine bilsted redgum satin walnut star leaved gum alligatorwood or simply sweetgum 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.
Trees are the backbone of any good landscape plan.
Sweet gum wood though has been another story.
The yellowish colored sap technically called gum in a hardwood tree is exuded from bark wounds and can actually be boiled down and concentrated into a salve that will reportedly cure skin.
General description the sapwood tends to be wide and is white to light pink while the heartwood is reddish brown often with darker streaks.
Despite the world demand for liquidambar through the centuries little was done with the yield of the north american sweet gum tree.
It did serve as a curative for confederate soldiers dysentery and was harvested during the second world war when asian supplies were cut off.
