Sugar Gum Tree Seeds
You painfully find them with your feet.
Sugar gum tree seeds. 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. Small mammals such as chipmunks red squirrels and gray squirrels also enjoy the fruits and seeds. American sweetgum seeds are eaten by eastern goldfinches purple finches sparrows mourning doves northern bobwhites and wild turkeys. Trees with spiked seed pods this tree could be one of several options.
The infertile seeds found in each of the sweet gum s compound seed capsules are a naturally occurring source of shikimic acid one of the main ingredients in the manufacture of tamiflu. How to grow sweetgum trees from seed 1. Choose ones that have not yet opened since. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation.
Gather one or two sweetgum fruits in autumn after they turn solid brown. How to grow sweetgum trees. It s best to plant them in maintained areas where you ll be cleaning up the seed pods. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation.
The seed capsules of this tree which is also known as bougainvillea goldenrain tree travel widely and sprout everywhere and we mean everywhere. Place the sweetgum fruits in a shallow tray under cool dry conditions for approximately one week or until they open. Sweet gum liquidambar styraciflua chestnut castanea or buckeye horsechestnut aesculus. Sweetgum trees are considered pioneer trees.
The first thing you need to do is collect your seed pods from the trees you like. According to the grumpy gardener who has deemed this tree the worst tree i ever planted during fall and winter the papery capsules blow everywhere bringing the seeds in contact with soil. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest.
The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. In spring march to may depending on location the sweet gum produces small pale green flowers that develop into spherical spiky seed pods that can create a problem if you like to enjoy your. These are trees that can become invasive in an area because they take root easily from seeds and grow quickly often excluding all other plants in the area.