Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-1012
Sweetgum
Liquidambar styraciflua
Sweetgum is a tall, fast-growing bottomland tree with star-shaped leaves and fine, durable wood ranked among the more important eastern hardwoods after the oaks. Its trunk yields storax, an aromatic resin chewed as gum and used medicinally for coughs and sore throats for centuries. The one thing anyone planting it needs to know: the woody, spiny seed balls that hang on all winter are murder on bare feet and lawn mowers alike, so it belongs over ground that never gets walked or mowed rather than next to a path or driveway. It needs full sun and acidic soil - alkaline or lime-heavy ground turns its leaves yellow with chlorosis - and once cut or burned back, it resprouts readily from the stump for decades.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Moderate · Moist · Well-Drained · Wet
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 4.5–8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 60–80 ft
- Mature spread
- 40–50 ft
- Plant spacing
- 40–50 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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American Basswood
Tilia americana
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American Beech
Fagus grandifolia
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American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
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American Elm
Ulmus americana
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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