What type of leaf is a sweet gum?
Sweetgum is a deciduous tree that may grow 80 to 120 feet tall with a diameter of 4 feet or more. On most sites, the tree averages 60 to 80 feet high and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The tree has alternate, palmately lobed leaves with toothed margins that mature into a star shape.
How do you identify a sweet gum tree?
Sweetgum Tree Identification To identify sweet gum trees, look for large star-shaped lobed green leaves that turn spectacular autumn red, yellow, and orange colors. Sweetgum tree bark looks light gray with vertical fissured ridges. Spiky gumballs are another identifying feature of sweetgum trees.
What trees have simple leaves?
Maple, sycamore, and sweet gum are all examples of common North American trees with simple leaf structure.
Is a sweet gum tree deciduous or coniferous?
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 …
Is a sweetgum tree a maple?
The leaves of a maple tree are very distinct, but that shape does not belong to maple leaves alone—a number of broadleaf trees have maple-like leaves. This list includes sycamore, yellow-poplar, and sweetgum trees.
What does the leaf of a sweetgum tree look like?
The new twigs every year are reddish brown in color and sometimes covered in corky “wings.” The leaves of the American sweetgum look like glossy five-pointed stars (though some leaves can have up to seven points). In autumn, the green leaves turn yellow, red, orange or purple depending on the cultivar.
Is sweet gum a hardwood or softwood?
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is one of the most important commercial hardwoods in the Southeastern United States. Its wood is bright reddish brown (with the sapwood nearly white) and may have black grain in the heartwood; it is heavy, straight, satiny, and close-grained, but not strong.
Is sweet gum a deciduous?
Liquidambar styraciflua, commonly called the American sweetgum, sweet-gum, alligator-wood, American-storax, bilsted, red-gum, satin-walnut, or star-leaved gum, is a deciduous tree native to warm temperate areas of eastern North America. Sweetgum is one of the most common hardwoods in the eastern United States.