Sweet Gum Tree Fruit Edible

They are decorative deciduous trees that are used in the wood industry and for ornamental purposes.

Sweet gum tree fruit edible. The trees spike ball fruit is almost as telltale for identification as the star shaped leaves. The fruit of the ice cream bean consists of a sweet fluffy material surrounding the seeds. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. Sweet gums liquidambar styraciflua are among the commonest trees in the south and are found in huge numbers throughout the piedmont and coastal plain of north carolina.

Timber from the sweet gum tree is a finely textured moderately heavy white colored sapwood with a light pink tint. They were formerly often treated in hamamelidaceae. Its heartwood is variable and ranges from dark brown to a lighter reddish brown. In its fresh liquid form it was used to flavor chewing gum up into the 1920 s.

This large tree provides shade in the summer gorgeous orange red and yellow leaves in the fall and is a great privacy barrier. In comparison the mildly bitter sweet gum is definitely sweeter. The spines become even spinier and holes open up to reveal seeds inside the balls. Despite its name the gum is not sweet.

North american distribution attributed to u. Other images are for illustrative purposes only showing a mature tree and fruit edible bean pod pulp. It takes the sweet gum tree 20 to 30 years to mature enough to produce its fruit. While you wait the tree has much to offer.

An occasional low hanging branch reveals an active cluster of early leaves and specialized flowers. Sweet gum balls start out plump and green but they dry as they mature. The somewhat sweet sap was allowed to dry some and then used as a chewing gum. The fruit it bears provides food for many animals including squirrels wood ducks whitetail deer birds and beavers.

It s like cotton candy in texture with a creamy sweet taste. Let s not forget about the beauty of the sweet gum ball tree itself. The green pods contain small aromatic seeds which when chewed after a meal help with digestion. Liquidambar commonly called sweetgum star gum in the uk gum redgum satin walnut or american storax is the only genus in the flowering plant family altingiaceae and has 15 species.

Although the spring flowers are fairly large they are held high in the tree and are difficult to see. These seeds are food for about 25 species.