Sugar Gum Tree Seeds

Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation.

Sugar gum tree seeds. 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. Choose ones that have not yet opened since. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest. All are common landscape trees and produce spiny pods around their seeds.

Sweetgum trees are considered pioneer trees. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. It s best to plant them in maintained areas where you ll be cleaning up the seed pods. Place the sweetgum fruits in a shallow tray under cool dry conditions for approximately one week or until they open.

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. 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 seed capsules of this tree which is also known as bougainvillea goldenrain tree travel widely and sprout everywhere and we mean everywhere. The seed is worth 150 200 per kilo and there are about 130 seeds per gram so there are a lot of trees in a kilo of seed place the seed pods in a glass jar by a window or somewhere nice and warm.

You painfully find them with your feet. 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. Gather one or two sweetgum fruits in autumn after they turn solid brown.

How to grow sweetgum trees from seed 1. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation. Trees with spiked seed pods this tree could be one of several options.

The first thing you need to do is collect your seed pods from the trees you like. 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. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers.