Nothing Sweeter Than Sweetgum

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --  While maples get lots of attention in the fall, you'll find our native Sweetgum tree has some of the best colors of all.  Green, yellow, orange, red and purple – you sometimes see all these colors at once on the star-shaped leaves of a single Sweetgum.  Liquidambar styraciflua is the Latin name for this tree that can grow up to 100 feet tall in a sunny spot.  

You may know these trees as much for their distinctive spiky gumballs that drop each year, which you may not adore – but lots of finches, wrens, chickadees, squirrels and chipmunks love to see, since they eat the seeds inside.  There is a Sweetgum tree that doesn't drop seed balls; its leaves have rounded tips and it's called 'Rotundiloba'.  You'll often see this cultivar planted in parking lots and other places that don't want seedballs lying around – but remember, while you won't have so much tree litter, your Sweetgum won't welcome so many cute critters either.

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio