The American Sweetgum has a native range from New Jersey & the Delmarva Peninsula down into central Florida to east Texas to southern Illinois & Indiana & Ohio into West Virginia in bottomlands and swamps and along watercourses. It has those glossy 5-lobed star-like leaves, 5 to 7 inches wide, that turn a good orange to red to red-purple autumn color. The brown bark is furrowed and the twigs are thickly corky winged. The tree does bear lots of the round, woody, horned brown ball-like fruits that fall all around the tree. It grows about 1 to 2 feet/year and lives about 150 to 300 years. I see lots of this species growing wild in bottomlands around most of Delaware. It has been commonly planted in the South and Mid-Atlantic as a shade and street tree, including central Illinois and infrequently in the Chicago area, where it has been just cold hardy enough to do alright. It is somewhat difficult to transplant, but nurseries dig it up in early spring as B&B. Its best range for pH is 6.0 to 6.5, but it does tolerate pH up to 7.0 at the most. It is windfirm, but it is messy from all the fruit.

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Great fall color when the leaves change color. Nice shade tree. Gum balls are a pain (literally) for walking on or when you're mowing. However, they make an excellent filler for potpourri. You can also put them around plants to keep cats out.

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