Sweet Gum Tree Balls Edible

The infertile seeds of the sweet gum ball contain shikimic acid which is also contained in the same tree used to make tamiflu.

Sweet gum tree balls edible. By mid fall the balls are dead and seedless. Their windblown seeds make them along with loblolly pines and tulip poplars one of the first trees to re forest a cleared area. You can even get creative and use them to make holiday trinkets or decorative balls for bowls. 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.

The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest. Other uses of the herb. 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.

Are sweetgum tree balls edible. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation. These seeds are food for about 25 species. The green pods contain small aromatic seeds which when chewed after a meal help with digestion.

The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. Just like leaves they must fall so the tree can prep for new growth. Sweet gum balls start out plump and green but they dry as they mature.

You can eat its leaves in a pinch if there s nothing else around or it s the only plant you can safely identify in a wilderness survival situation. It can also be chewed to sweeten the breath. While they re not edible the balls can double as spiky mulch to keep animals away from young plants. The young buds are actually tasty raw nibble.

Its spike ball fruit can take 30 years to appear but while you wait you can use sweet gum sap to fight inflammation bacteria and fungus. The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter. The spines become even spinier and holes open up to reveal seeds inside the balls. It forms in cavities of the bark and also exudes naturally.

If you re up for some experimenting sweet gum balls can been used to make a tea from boiling the young green seeds. The sweetgum tree liquidambar styraciflua produces an extremely spiked capsule containing one or two seeds in the summer. Sweetgum really isn t considered an edible. The aromatic resin storax is obtained from the trunk of this tree.

The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. A chewing gum and a stabilizer for cakes etc is obtained from the resin. You painfully find them with your feet. It is harvested in autumn.