Sweet Gum Tree Balls Poisonous

As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers.

Sweet gum tree balls poisonous. The gum seed pod are not toxic but that can be very irritating to the stomach and esophagus. Department of agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 to 9 are tall hardy trees that produce profuse. Sweet gum trees are excellent shade trees. The sweet gum tree a forty foot tall sweet gum tree rises from the northeast corner of my back yard.

The balls of the trees are modified fruits that house the seeds until the balls ripen and release the seeds. The sweet gum grows in a long list of states thinning to a more patchy distribution as it spreads southward into mexico and central america. Are sweet gum tree balls harmful to a dog s feet. Medicinal uses of sweet gum according to articles from pharmacognosy reviews.

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. While you can t eat the balls or the seeds pioneers once peeled the bark and scraped the resin like solid to produce chewing gum and medicines. American sweetgum trees can be found throughout must of the eastern us. Sweet gum trees liquidambar styraciflua.

Sweet gum s sticky sap rapidly seals over bark wounds drying and forming a protective scab and the flow of the sticky aromatic stuff can deter burrowing insects and herbivores. For a new world tree it is interesting to note its. The fragrant leaves are green in the summer and brilliant. It is fairly common to see them drink more when they are nauseous.

A mulch of sweet gum balls around your favorite plants will keep the snails away. This combined with the extra food can be causing some stomach upset. Although they may look like prickly little seeds sweet gum tree balls are actually the fruit of the.