Gum Tree Balls

Go out with a bucket and fill it with seed pods and in the spring you may just use some.

Gum tree balls. By mid fall the balls are dead and seedless. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. The best method for removing sweetgum balls from the lawn raking or blowing. Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller branches sometimes all winter.

Each capsule containing one to two small seeds has a pair of terminal spikes for a total of 80 120 spikes. When do sweetgum tree balls fall. 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. Raking with a close tined rake and bagging is an effective way of removing the balls as well as for.

The spiky clusters are actually balls of fruit with tiny seeds inside that birds and squirrels snack on. 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. These compound seed capsules are often confused with the seed heads 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 sweet gum got its name for the resinous sap that results when you score its bark. Just like leaves they must fall so the tree can prep for new growth. 100 sweet gum tree balls spiked craft decor with monkey balls for holiday decoration and home parties thejamescanteenstore. It takes the sweet gum tree 20 to 30 years to mature enough to produce its fruit.

What are sweetgum balls. The distinctive compound fruit is hard dry and globose 1 1 5 inches 25 38 mm in diameter composed of numerous 40 60 capsules. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. Six great things to use sweetgum balls for.

The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter. The sweetgum tree liquidambar styraciflua produces an extremely spiked capsule containing one or two seeds in the summer. While you wait the tree has much to offer. Most lawn mower vacuum systems clog up with the sweetgum balls and a standard mower shoots them out.

The spiky seed pods from the sweetgum tree are not only fascinating to look at they can actually help out in the garden.