gumball tree - GARDEN
An attractive, large shade tree, the gumball tree is more widely known as the sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Its woody, spiny, rounded fruits are called "gumballs" and cover the ground in fall and winter once they drop from the branches. The most popular sweetgum tree is the American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) which is also called gumball tree.
Understanding the Context
The American sweetgum is a tall ornamental tree with its colorful fall leaves and rounded pyramidal crown. It is a beautiful shade or lawn landscaping tree. Sweetgum, with separate male and female flowers on the same tree (a monoecious species), does not flower or fruit appreciably for the first 15 or so years of its life. Afterwards, a steadily increasing avalanche of spiny gumball fruits accumulate, first hanging as green orbs from the tree in summer.
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Key Insights
The tree commonly known as the gumball tree is botanically identified as the Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua. This large, deciduous species is native to the warm temperate regions of eastern North America, stretching from Connecticut down to Florida and west to Texas and Central America. Female flowers give rise to the tree’s signature fruit — a spiky, spherical capsule known as a “gumball.” These burr-like seed balls, approximately 1 to 1.5 inches (2.5-3.8 cm) in diameter, contain numerous small seeds. The tradition of sticking gum to a tree at the top of "Cardiac Hill" on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University dates back to the 1960s and continues to this day. However, the Gum Tree ...
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The State Journal-Register: Sweet gum trees were planted in Springfield a decade earlier than generally thought Springfield folklore says the city’s population of sweet gum trees (and their annoying, spiky “gum ball” seed pods) dates from the great elm tree die-off of the late 1940s. Sweet gums indeed were one ...