Maple Sweet Gum Tree Leaf
The leaves of a maple tree are very distinct but that shape does not belong to maple leaves alone a number of broadleaf trees have maple like leaves.
Maple sweet gum tree leaf. Sweet gum description a sweet gum is a deciduous tree in the witch hazel family that ranges in height from 60 to 100 feet and has a narrow oval canopy. Flowers and fruits are inconspicuous details l. Leaves are simple alternate and deciduous. The leaves are star shaped with 5 to 7 deeply palmate pointed lobes.
The leaf bases are flattened or slightly heart shaped. These brown gumballs are sturdy able to survive being stepped on. Because come winter these woods in tai tong hong kong transform themselves into truly m. Leaf margins are finely serrate.
The liquidambar styraciflua growth rate is. The ultimate difference between sweetgum and maple trees is planted in the minds of children at first contact. The star like leaf has 5 or 7 lobes or points and turns from green in summer to yellow or purple in autumn. Like the maple tree these species have leaves whose ribs or veins radiate out from a single stalk or petiole attachment in a palmate pattern that is the lobes resemble a set of fingers.
The auto rotation characteristic of samaras. Sweetgum seed delivery involves 1 to 1 1 4 inch sized balls containing many individual fruits ending in sharp pronged points and each containing one or two long winged seeds. Each leaf is a shiny dark green above and paler below with small hairs. Genus liquidambar are deciduous trees grown for their alternate maple like leaves which take on brilliant and long lasting autumn colour.
The fruit is a conspicuous spiked ball that hangs in clusters. White rot occurs in roots and trunks. This list includes sycamore yellow poplar and sweetgum trees. Artist s conk infects trees by entering through wounds.
The bark is grayish brown and deeply furrowed. 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. Styraciflua is a deciduous tree to 20m tall broadly conical in outline with rather glossy maple like 5 to 7 lobed leaves which turn to shades of orange crimson and purple in autumn. It is characterized as having a buttressed base with a pyramidal or oval shaped crown.
This leaf is borne on corky winged limbs and the bark is gray brown deeply furrowed with narrow ridges. The leaf apex is long tapered. Sweet gum woods sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Some people refer to these leaves as having a star form or a maple like silhouette.
Artist s conk ganoderma applanatum is a fungal disease of a sweet gum tree that causes wood rot according to the university of california ipm online. Stems often have corky and attractive wings during the second year. Description of sweet gum tree. Though conks appear near the base of the tree decayed wood may spread up to.
The fungus displays semicircular conks mushroom like growths that measure 2 to 30 inches wide and 1 to 8 inches thick with a brown hued upper surface and white beneath.