Leaf: Star-shaped or maplelike, with 5, sometimes 7, long-pointed, finely saw-toothed lobes and 5 main veins from notched base; with resinous odor when crushed; leafstalks slender, nearly as long as blades. Shiny dark green above, turning reddish in autumn.
Flower: Tiny; in greenish ball-like clusters in spring; male in several clusters along a stalk; female in drooping cluster on same tree.
Fruit: A long stalked drooping brown ball composed of many individual fruits, each ending in 2 long curved prickly points and each with 1-2 long-winged seeds; maturing in autumn and persistent into winter.
Twig: Green to brown, stout, often forming corky wings.
Bark: Gray; deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.
Form: Large, aromatic tree with straight trunk and conical crown that becomes round and spreading.
An important timber tree, Sweetgum is second in production only to oaks among hardwoods. It is a leading furniture wood, used for cabinetwork, veneer, plywood, pulpwood, barrels, and boxes. In pioneer days, a gum was obtained from the trunks by peeling the bark and scraping off the resinlike solid. This gum was used medicinally as well as for chewing gum. Commercial storax, a fragrant resin used in perfumes and medicines, is from the related Oriental Sweetgum of western Asia.
Extreme SW Connecticut south to central Florida, west to E Texas, and north to S Illinois; also a variety in E Mexico.
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/vine/toxdiv/index.html
Photographed outside Fairview, Illinois.
Copyright Jamie Neville and Radine Kellogg
Spoon River Valley HS Dist#4
London Mills, IL 61544
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees