Sweet Gum Tree Balls Edible

Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation.

Sweet gum tree balls edible. Sweet gum balls start out plump and green but they dry as they mature. The sweetgum tree liquidambar styraciflua produces an extremely spiked capsule containing one or two seeds in the summer. You can even get creative and use them to make holiday trinkets or decorative balls for bowls. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest.

The aromatic resin storax is obtained from the trunk of this tree. The young buds are actually tasty raw nibble. Just like leaves they must fall so the tree can prep for new growth. 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.

The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers. The somewhat sweet sap was allowed to dry some and then used as a chewing gum. A chewing gum and a stabilizer for cakes etc is obtained from the resin. By mid fall the balls are dead and seedless.

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. Their windblown seeds make them along with loblolly pines and tulip poplars one of the first trees to re forest a cleared area. These seeds are food for about 25 species. In its fresh liquid form it was used to flavor chewing gum up into the 1920 s.

Are sweetgum tree balls edible. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. The green pods contain small aromatic seeds which when chewed after a meal help with digestion. The infertile seeds of the sweet gum ball contain shikimic acid which is also contained in the same tree used to make tamiflu.

The spines become even spinier and holes open up to reveal seeds inside the balls. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers. It forms in cavities of the bark and also exudes naturally. It is harvested in autumn.

Sweetgum really isn t considered an edible. 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. You painfully find them with your feet.

Edible parts of sweet gum. 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. Other uses of the herb. The only difference is sweetgum balls drop all fall and winter.