Sweet Gum
(Liquidambar styraciflua)

Tree Description

60-120 ft. high.  Diameter is 2-4 ft. but some are up to 5 feet.    

Leaf Description

• Leaf Texture is glabrous
  
• Leaf Arrangement is alternate
• Leaf Margin is finely serrated
• Leaf Venation is palmate
• Leaf Division is simple
• Leaf Attachment is Petiolate
• Leaf Shape palmately lobed

 Bark Description
       

The bark is gray and deeply furrowed into narrow, scaley ridges.

Twig and Bud Description

                
   There are many individual fruits in one seed ball.  Each compartment contains many little winged seeds.  The seeds are eaten by song birds, squirrels, wild turkey, and chipmunks.

Fruit Description 

Little brown spiky balls.

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Resources:

• http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/main.htm
• Symonds, George W. D. The Tree Identification Book. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1958.
• Trees and Nonflowering Plants. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.,1998