Liquidambar

Both the scientific and common names refer to the sweet resinous sap (liquid amber) exuded by the trunk when cut.

• †Liquidambar changii - Miocene (Washington state, North America)

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They are all large, deciduous trees, {{cvt|25|–|40|m}} tall, with palmately 3- to 7-lobed leaves arranged spirally on the stems and length of {{convert|12.5|to|20|cm}}, having a pleasant aroma when crushed. Their leaves can be many colors such as bright red, orange, yellow, and even purple.{{cite book | last =Peterson | first =Lee Allen | title =Edible Wild Plants | isbn =0-395-31870-X | publisher =Houghton Mifflin Company | year =1977 | location =Boston, Massachusetts | pages =214–215}} Mature bark is grayish and vertically grooved. The flowers are small, produced in a dense globular inflorescence {{convert|1|–|2|cm}} diameter, pendulous on a {{convert|3|–|7|cm}} stem. The fruit is a woody multiple capsule {{convert|2|–|4|cm}} in diameter (popularly called a "gumball"), containing numerous seeds and covered in numerous prickly, woody armatures, possibly to attach to fur of animals. The woody biomass is classified as hardwood.

File:Liquidambar styraciflua MHNT.BOT.2006.0.1265.jpg

At higher latitudes, Liquidambars are among the last of trees to leaf out in the spring, and also among the last of trees to drop its leaves in the fall/autumn, turning multiple colors. Fall/autumn colors are most brilliant where nights are chilly, but some cultivars color well in warm climates.

Species within this genus are native to Southeast and east Asia, the western Mediterranean, and eastern North America. Countries and regions in which they occur are: Indonesia (Nusa Tenggara, Java, Sumatra); Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia); Thailand; Cambodia; Vietnam; China (including Tibet, Fujian, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan, Zhejiang), Taiwan, South Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Bhutan, Turkey, Greece (Rhodes), Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and the eastern United States (from Texas to Connecticut). It is regarded as an artificially introduced species in India, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. In cultivation, they can be seen in warm temperate and subtropical climates around the world.

File: Altingiaceae - Liquidambar species.JPG of Italy]]

This genus is known in the fossil record from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary (age range: 99.7 to 0.781 million years ago).{{cite web |url= https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=54637 |title= Liquidambar Linnaeus 1753 (sweetgum)| website= Fossilworks.org| url-status= live| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211213122149/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=54637| archive-date= December 13, 2021| publisher= | date= | access-date= February 27, 2024}} The genus was much more widespread in the Tertiary, but has disappeared from Europe due to extensive glaciation in the north and the east–west oriented Alps and Pyrenees, which have served as a blockade against southward migration. It has also disappeared from western North America due to climate change, and also from the unglaciated (but nowadays too cold) Russian Far East. There are several fossil species of Liquidambar, showing its relict status today.

The wood is used for furniture, interior finish, paper pulp, veneers and baskets of all kinds. The heartwood once was used in furniture, sometimes as imitation mahogany or Circassian walnut. It is used widely today in flake and strand boards. Sweetgum is a foodplant for various caterpillars. The American sweetgum is widely planted as an ornamental, within its natural range and elsewhere.

The hardened sap, or gum resin, excreted from the wounds of the sweetgum, for example, the American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), can be chewed on like chewing gum and has been long used for this purpose in the Southern United States. The sap was also believed to be a cure for sciatica, weakness of nerves, etc.

In Traditional Chinese medicine, lu lu tong, or "all roads open," is the hard, spiky fruit of native sweetgum species. It first appeared in Chinese medical literature in Omissions from the Materia Medica, by Chen Cangqi, in 720 AD. Bitter in taste, aromatic, and neutral in temperature, lu lu tong is claimed to promote the movement of blood and qi, water metabolism and urination, expels wind, and unblocks the channels. It is supposedly an ingredient in formulas for epigastric distention or abdominal pain, anemia, irregular or scanty menstruation, low back or knee pain and stiffness, edema with difficult urination, or nasal congestion.{{sfn|Bensky|Clavey|Stöger|2004}}

In the fall/autumn, the trees drop their hard, spiky seedpods by the hundreds, which can become a serious nuisance on pavements and lawns. Some US cities have expedited permits to remove sweetgum trees.{{Cite web |title=Sunnyvale, CA - Tree Removal |url=https://sunnyvale.ca.gov/property/trees/removal.htm |access-date=2021-01-25 |website=sunnyvale.ca.gov}}

In Louisiana folklore, a sharpened stick from this tree can be used to wound a cryptid known as the Parlangua (a hybrid of man and alligator).{{Cite web |title=Half Man, Half Alligator |url=https://www.discovery.com/shows/cajun-legend-hunters/episodes/half-man-half-alligator |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Discovery |language=en}}

Image:Liquidambar orientalis arboretum Breuil 2.jpg|Foliage of Liquidambar orientalis

Image:Sweetgum in autumn.JPG| Sweetgum fall foliage and seedpods, Brooklyn, New York

Image:Sweetgum tree seed pods.jpg|Sweetgum seed pods in Michigan during winter

Image:Sweetgum Seed closeup.jpg|Closeup on a sweetgum seed pod

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last1=Bensky|first1=D|last2=Clavey|first2=S|last3=Stöger|first3=E|title=Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gvPAAAACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Eastland Press|isbn=978-0-939616-42-8 }}
• {{cite book|last=Fergus|first=Charles |title=Trees of Pennsylvania and the Northeast|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4LKBcxNzHZAC&pg=PA160|year=2002|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-2092-2|pages=160–162}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Theodore R. |last2=Howard |first2=Jack B. |last3=Longwell |first3=John P. |last4=Peters |first4=William A. |title=Product compositions and kinetics in the rapid pyrolysis of sweet gum hardwood |journal=Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Process Design and Development |date=July 1985 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=836–844 |doi=10.1021/i200030a053 }}
• {{Cite journal | last1 = Hsu | first1 = E. | last2 = Andrews | first2 = S. | year = 2005 | title = Tree of the year: Liquidambar | url = http://dendrology.org/site/images/web4events/pdf/Tree%20info%20IDS_04_pp11_45_TreeoftheYear.pdf | journal = International Dendrology Society Yearbook | volume = 2004 | pages = 11–45 | access-date = 2017-10-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171022021209/http://www.dendrology.org/site/images/web4events/pdf/Tree%20info%20IDS_04_pp11_45_TreeoftheYear.pdf | archive-date = 2017-10-22 | url-status = dead}}
• {{ cite journal| last1= Svenning| first1= Jens-Christian| title= Deterministic Plio-Pleistocene extinctions in the European cool-temperate tree flora| journal= Ecology Letters| volume= 6| pages= 646–653 |date=July 2003 | doi = 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00477.x| issue= 7| bibcode= 2003EcolL...6..646S}}

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• {{Commons category-inline|Liquidambar}}
• {{Wikispecies-inline}}
• {{cite web| url= http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pro.html?id=c373e90a275ac1578f6a17245d830100| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070607165137/http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pro.html?id=c373e90a275ac1578f6a17245d830100 |archive-date= June 7, 2007| title= Highlights of American Chemical Society meeting in Atlanta| website= chemistry.org| publisher= American Chemical Society | url-status= unfit}}
• [https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st358 Liquidambar styraciflua: Sweetgum] at University of Florida IFAS Extension

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Category:Cretaceous genus first appearances

Category:Extant Cretaceous first appearances

Category:Ornamental trees

Category:Saxifragales genera