Poisonous Sweet Gum Tree Balls

As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. How to use sweetgum balls for medicinal purposes. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation.

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I d leave it mother nature will thank you.

Poisonous sweet gum tree balls. The fragrant leaves are green in the summer and brilliant. The balls of the trees are modified fruits that house the seeds until the balls ripen and release the seeds. American sweetgum trees can be found throughout must of the eastern us. You painfully find them with your feet.

The dried seedpods fall to the ground and create hazards for walkers. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. It is fairly common to see them drink more when they are nauseous.

The tree develops clusters of fuzzy green flowers that turn into spiky balls which are actually the seedpods of the tree. The seeds are eaten by many birds ever seen birds up in your tree in the fall picking at the balls. The gum seed pod are not toxic but that can be very irritating to the stomach and esophagus. This combined with the extra food can be causing some stomach upset.

The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. Are sweet gum tree balls harmful to a dog s feet. 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. Fill to the top with alcohol such as vodka or pure grain alcohol and let it steep for 6 weeks.

If you re up for some experimenting sweet gum balls can been used to make a tea from boiling the young green seeds. Sweet gum is host to many of the big beautiful silk moths especially used by luna moths like in the lunesta commercial. Although they may look like prickly little seeds sweet gum tree balls are actually the fruit of the. The infertile seeds of the sweet gum ball contain shikimic acid which is also contained in the same tree used to make tamiflu.

The first westerners to describe the plant were spanish conquistadors who recorded its uses by montezuma and the formidable aztec empire in the 16th century. Sweet gum trees are excellent shade trees. By the time the balls fall to the ground the seeds are usually gone. Despite its name the gum is not sweet.

Chief among them the sweet gum s.