Maple Sweet Gum Tree Leaf

Sweet gum woods sounds like something out of a fairy tale.

Maple sweet gum tree leaf. Leaves are simple alternate and deciduous. The auto rotation characteristic of samaras. 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 central america. Maple samaras are more easily trod on flat winged pods each containing a single seed fruit.

The fungus displays semicircular conks mushroom like growths that measure 2 to 30 inches wide and 1 to 8 inches thick with a brown hued upper surface and white beneath. The star like leaf has 5 or 7 lobes or points and turns from green in summer to yellow or purple in autumn. The sweet gum has a pyramidal habit when young eventually becoming rounded and tall up to more than 100 feet. Stems often have corky and attractive wings during the second year.

The fruit is a conspicuous spiked ball that hangs in clusters. Sweet gum description a sweet gum is a deciduous tree in the witch hazel family that ranges in height from 60 to 100 feet and has a narrow oval canopy. Genus liquidambar are deciduous trees grown for their alternate maple like leaves which take on brilliant and long lasting autumn colour. Though conks appear near the base of the tree decayed wood may spread up to.

Artist s conk ganoderma applanatum is a fungal disease of a sweet gum tree that causes wood rot according to the university of california ipm online. Styraciflua is a deciduous tree to 20m tall broadly conical in outline with rather glossy maple like 5 to 7 lobed leaves which turn to shades of orange crimson and purple in autumn. Each leaf is a shiny dark green above and paler below with small hairs. These brown gumballs are sturdy able to survive being stepped on.

The ultimate difference between sweetgum and maple trees is planted in the minds of children at first contact. It is characterized as having a buttressed base with a pyramidal or oval shaped crown. Like the maple tree these species have leaves whose ribs or veins radiate out from a single stalk or petiole attachment in a palmate pattern that is the lobes resemble a set of fingers. This list includes sycamore yellow poplar and sweetgum trees.

This leaf is borne on corky winged limbs and the bark is gray brown deeply furrowed with narrow ridges. Some people refer to these leaves as having a star form or a maple like silhouette. Leaf margins are finely serrate. Description of sweet gum tree.

The leaf apex is long tapered. Flowers and fruits are inconspicuous details l. 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. White rot occurs in roots and trunks.

Artist s conk infects trees by entering through wounds. The leaves are star shaped with 5 to 7 deeply palmate pointed lobes. The leaf bases are flattened or slightly heart shaped. The bark is grayish brown and deeply furrowed.

Sweetgum is a large tree that reaches 80 to 150 feet in height 3 to 5 feet in diameter.