Sweet Gum Tree Balls Edible

The sweetgum tree liquidambar styraciflua produces an extremely spiked capsule containing one or two seeds in the summer.

Sweet gum tree balls edible. What are sweetgum balls. Sweet gum trees also have unusual fruit. You can even get creative and use them to make holiday trinkets or decorative balls for bowls. How to get a sweetgum tree to stop producing balls.

5 out of 5 stars 122 122 reviews 7 00 free shipping favorite add to american sweet gum low maintenance ornamental shade tree sweetgum bare root thejamescanteenstore. The fruit it bears provides food for many animals including squirrels wood ducks whitetail deer birds and beavers. From shop beaditudes4u. 50 assorted sweet gum balls seed pods free shipping wreath making flower arranging fairy houses natural craft supply beaditudes4u.

4 5 out of 5 stars 45 45. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. It s called sweet gum to separate it from a different species altogether the black gum nyssa sylvatica which is extremely sour and bitter. The trees spike ball fruit is almost as telltale for identification as the star shaped leaves.

While they re not edible the balls can double as spiky mulch to keep animals away from young plants. Despite its name the gum is not sweet. In its fresh liquid form it was used to flavor chewing gum up into the 1920 s. In comparison the mildly bitter sweet gum is definitely sweeter.

The sweet gum tree a forty foot tall sweet gum tree rises from the northeast corner of my back yard. On this early spring day the tree is still a skeleton although leaf buds are just beginning to emerge and dozens of sweet gum balls dangle from its naked branches like shriveled christmas tree ornaments. The somewhat sweet sap was allowed to dry some and then used as a chewing gum. The green pods contain small aromatic seeds which when chewed after a meal help with digestion.

This large tree provides shade in the summer gorgeous orange red and yellow leaves in the fall and is a great privacy barrier. While you wait the tree has much to offer. As previously mentioned sweetgum balls are the fruit of a medium to large size tree 65 155 feet tall with a trunk up to 6 feet across that can live for an extremely long time up to 400 years. It takes the sweet gum tree 20 to 30 years to mature enough to produce its fruit.

They are hard round balls about 1 1 2 inches in diameter and covered with sharp little bristles that can hurt a dog s paws.