Gum Tree Spiky Balls

Eastern sycamore platanus occidentalis native to the eastern united states is one of north america s most massive trees.

Gum tree spiky balls. A fast growing tree the sweetgum offers plenty of shade while growing well in a vast range of soils and moisture levels. A full grown sweet gum changing color. These compound seed capsules are often confused with the seed heads of the. The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter.

The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. Here s what each of the pods look like. A notable exception is rotundiloba liquidambar styraciflua rotundiloba usda zones 5 through 9 which is a sterile female cultivar that does not produce fruits. All are common landscape trees and produce spiny pods around their seeds.

These trees and their little spiked balls of fruit or gumballs have been preventing missourians from walking outside barefoot for centuries. Hardy in usda zones 4 through 9 it needs a large. The spines help protect the seeds from being eaten by critters like birds and squirrels. We ve taken hundreds of walks in our neighborhood and have run into the same patches of spiky balls countless times.

Liquidambar styraciflua commonly known as the sweet gum tree is one of the most easily recognizable trees native to missouri. Just like leaves they must fall so the tree can prep for new growth. Although they may look like prickly little seeds sweet gum tree balls are actually the fruit of the tree. When the spikes open the seeds.

They dangle from branches on long stems. On our typical route there are 3 trees that bear these weird little balls. The spiky clusters are actually balls of fruit with tiny seeds inside that birds and squirrels snack on. Buckeye horsechestnut aesculus chestnut castanea or sweet gum liquidambar styraciflua.

Sycamore trees platanus spp have round 1 1 2 inch diameter spiky looking balls but the spikes aren t fierce and sharp. Those spiny balls seed pods dropped by your sweet gum tree can actually be put to good use. Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller branches sometimes all winter. If you have more than one sweet.

However the search is long overdue. This is a guide about uses for sweet gum balls. At first green and somewhat fuzzy looking they dry into brown bristly balls. This means that only one tree is needed for the flowers to be pollinated and a single tree can produce the spiky fruits even when another sweet gum tree is not in sight.

For instance yesterday i finally looked up tree with spiky balls yeah i giggled a little inside at the search terms. I ve twisted my ankle on them. The one major flaw of this deciduous tree is the hundreds of spiny woody. It reaches 75 to 100 feet tall with trunk diameters from 3 to 8 feet wide.

Inside each spiky ball are up to 50 tiny winged seeds.