Wicomico County

Liquidambar styraciflua     

Plant of the week... 

...or American sweet gum is a native deciduous tree that thrives in the Eastern United States.  The trees grow 60-80 feet tall, 40-60 feet wide and need full sun and love moist well-drained acidic soils.  It grows with a straight trunk and a pyramidal to rounded crown with a shallow root system, which makes planting in the spring necessary for the roots to recover from transplant shock.   Plants are cold tolerant from USDA zones 5-9, thriving in every county in Maryland.  The dark green, glossy 4-8-inch-long and wide leaves are star shaped with 5-7 pointed lobes. Each fragrant leaf has a long stalk that is arranged in an alternate fashion on the branches.  In autumn the leaves bring a rainbow of colors including a mix of yellow, gold, orange, red, burgundy, lavender and purple. The light gray bark forms irregular, deep furrows, while the twigs develop 2-4 corky wing-like ridges. In spring the monoecious yellow green flowers are arranged in round clusters with mature into gum balls.  The gum balls are 1-3 inches in diameter and turn dark brown, staying on the trees until December to April when the clusters fall to the ground. Although these fruits provide food for songbirds like the American Goldfinch, they should be cleaned up in pedestrian areas due to their hard round bristly surface.  Anyone who has stepped on a Sweet gum ball barefoot will never do so willing again.  For those that wish the lovely silhouette and beautiful fall foliage but not the spiny gum balls, there are cultivars that do not produce fruit including ‘Hapdell’ and ‘Rotundiloba’.   The summer foliage provides food for the Imperial Moth larvae and the Hickory Horned devil larvae, while the bark is enjoyed by rabbits, mice and beavers. The trees are resistant to soil compacted soils, deer, drought, fire, heat, rabbits. 

Ginny Rosenkranz