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Sweetgum - One of the 100 Most Common North American Trees

By Steve Nix, About.com

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Introduction To the Sweetgum

Sweetgum Illustration

Sweetgum Illustration

C.S. Sargent
Sweetgum is sometimes called redgum, probably because of the red color of the older heartwood and its red fall leaves. Sweetgum grows from Connecticut southward throughout the East to central Florida and eastern Texas and is a very common commercial timber species of the South. Sweetgum is easy to identify in both summer and in winter. Look for the star-shaped leaf as foliage grows in the Spring and look for the dried seed balls under the tree (see illustration).

The trunk is normally straight and does not divide into double or multiple leaders and side branches are small in diameter on young trees, creating a pyramidal form. The bark becomes deeply ridged at about 25-years-old. Sweetgum makes a nice conical park, campus or residential shade tree for large properties when it is young, developing a more oval or rounded canopy as it grows older as several branches become dominant and grow in diameter.

Sweetgum Leaf Silhouette
Introduction to Sweetgum, USFS Fact Sheet ST358

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