For the past two weeks, you may have noticed ripe fruits on the ground around our young sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua.) Some gum balls can be found still attached to the tree. This tree is approximately 10 years old, and over the past several years we have followed it closely. Its exact age is nevertheless unknown due to its origin as a volunteer. You can read more about this individual here, here, and here.
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| Sweetgum fruits (or 'gum balls' as they are popularly called) are generally thought of as troublesome and trashy. It's unpleasant, and potentially hazardous for those traveling barefoot, to step on a gum ball―they are large and prickly. Furthermore, on the ground under mature trees, the fruits are numerous. |
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| But gum balls aren't all bad. A local Shreveport resident, Linda, recounts how as a girl of four living in rural Rapides Parish, she and her older sister would use gum balls to make Christmas tree ornaments. The sisters would wrap gum balls in pieces of aluminum foil, pressing it into the prickly fruits, and then hang the shiny orbs from the branches of their Christmas tree. Attaching a small bow made from scrap pieces of ribbon adds a little holiday color. |
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| Another Shreveport resident, Sidda Ogea, has also found beauty in the prickly gum balls. Sidda spray painted the fruits gold and incorporated them into a holiday display, or altar, celebrating the Virgin Mary. |
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| Working closely with sweetgum fruits will teach you something about the reproductive cycle of this species. Shaking or thumping these fruits releases seeds and other tiny pieces of plant material, some kind of natural packing material. |
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| The seeds are the larger pieces. They measure a ¼ of an inch in length. We ought to plant a few seeds in the arboretum to have a replacement for our current specimen. |
