Leaf: alternate, simple, 3-6" (7.5-15 cm) long and wide, 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: 1-1 1/4" (2.5-3 cm) in diameter; 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 tree with straight trunk and conical crown that becomes round and spreading.
Habitat: moist soils of valleys and lower slopes; in mixed woodlands. Often a pioneer after logging, clearing, and in old fields.
Range: extreme southwestern Connecticut south to central Florida, west to eastern Texas, and north to southern Illinois; also a variety in eastern Mexico; to 3000' (914 m) in southern Appalachians.
Location: on the Bunker Hill High School campus, north end of the front lawn.
latitude: 39o02.42N
longitude: 089o57.61W
The Sweetgum is an important timber tree, 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. It was used medicinally as well as for chewing gum.
© Community Unit School District #8, Bunker Hill
504 E. Warren, Bunker Hill, IL 62014
References:
Little, Elbert L. Field Guide to Trees: Eastern Region. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1980.
Mohlenbrock, Robert H. Forest Trees of Illinois. Springfield, IL: 1992