Sweet Gum Tree Balls Uses
American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), also known as American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood, or simply sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus Liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern North America and tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America.Sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the.
Sweet gum tree balls uses. It’s Sweet Gum Ball time of year again and that means you may find yourself slipping on these prickly round seeds. Before you write them off as just a nuisance, consider these simple ways to utilize the Sweet Gum Ball Tree and it’s falling “fruit”. It’s currently flu season, which means many people are hom Rake the sweet gum balls into a pile with a standard leaf rake. Put the spiny balls to good use by using them as a mulch to keep pests like slugs, snails and rabbits out of your garden. Step 3 Roll over your lawn with a rolling nut picker-upper like the Nut Wizard or Pecan Picker Upper. These devices are typically made up of rounded cages. The gum balls or monkey balls are said to have several capsule-like structures, wood-like in appearance. The uses of the tree extend from structuring furniture to using it as an ornamental tree for the purpose of landscaping. The sweet gum wood is also used for fabricating veneers, flooring, and making decorative baskets. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. As a monoecious plant, a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. This means that only one tree is needed for the flowers to be pollinated, and a single tree can produce the spiky fruits even when another sweet gum tree is not in sight.
Woodland crowns are a popular way to use outdoor findings. You can make a crown from sweet gum balls by using silk leaves as a base. Hot-glue the ends of the silk leaves together to form a circle that will fit around your head. Glue plenty of sweet gum balls to the leaves, and then wrap the crown in ribbon or raffia to finish the project. When do sweetgum tree balls fall? And why? The spiky clusters are actually balls of fruit with tiny seeds inside that birds and squirrels snack on. By mid-fall, the balls are dead and seedless. Just like leaves, they must fall, so the tree can prep for new growth. The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter. The Sweetgum Ball’s wood is second only to the Oak. The sweetgum wood has many uses, particularly veneer, furniture, flooring, interior trim, woodenware, paper pulp and to make baskets. Now, knowing all this please consider keeping that beautiful tree. Get yourself a Bag-A-Nut Sweetgum Ball machine to get those pesky gum balls off your lawn. Sweet gum’s sticky sap rapidly seals over bark wounds, drying and forming a protective “scab,” and the flow of the sticky, aromatic stuff can deter burrowing insects and herbivores. A mulch of sweet gum balls around your favorite plants will keep the snails away. Medicinal Uses of Sweet Gum According to Articles from Pharmacognosy Reviews :
Sweet gum is a deciduous, forest-dwelling tree, growing as high as 150 feet, the tree is covered with rough, gray bark; but the branchlets are reddish-brown and often have corky ridges. When cut, it exudes a sticky, resinous gum or balsam. The tree is a deciduous fast growing tree in the witch hazel family. It can reach heights ranging from 60 feet to 100 feet tall. The foliage is palmate, like a maple leaf, but more star-shaped. The sweet gum is considered a “must have” for many landscapers throughout the south, mainly because it has such character. Sweet gum fruits are spiky green balls that turn brown through winter and fall to the ground November through May. They are 1 3/4 inches in diameter and have prickly points that open to let the. Growing the Tree. Sweet gum wood is a favorite for furniture, and the sap is added to tincture of benzoin and found often in incense. There is quite a lot of good wrapped up in this amazing tree. If you’d like to grow your own sweet gum, first understand that it’s a commitment to a tree that many describe as a nuisance.
Edible parts of Sweet Gum: A chewing gum and a stabilizer for cakes etc is obtained from the resin. It can also be chewed to sweeten the breath. Other uses of the herb: The aromatic resin "Storax" is obtained from the trunk of this tree. It forms in cavities of the bark and also exudes naturally. It is harvested in autumn. The Best Method for Removing Sweetgum Balls From the Lawn. The sweetgum (Liquidambar styracifua) is a tall, elegantly-shaped tree that grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones. So as you can see, the Witches Burrs actually have quite a few uses. If you live somewhere where the Sweet Gum Tree doesn’t grow, you can order them online. Most of the photos I collected while studying the Witches Burrs came from Etsy. There are a few shops that sell jewelry, charms, oils, and powders of the Witches Burrs. 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. The sweetgum tree ( Liquidambar styraciflua ) produces an extremely spiked capsule containing one or two seeds in the summer.
The Sweet Gum tree is the sand spur of the forest. You painfully find them with your feet. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the Sweet Gum’s reputation. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap […] Gum. The American sweet gum tree was so named because of the amber-colored, resinous sweet sap that was scraped from the inside of the bark to produce a chewing gum-like substance. Native Americans and pioneers also used the sap for a number of medicinal purposes. Identification. Sweet gum leaves are glossy and dark green in the summer.