Sweet Gum
Liquidambar styraciflua
Grown for the autumn color, which only arrives in full sun — but keep it off paths, where the spiky seed balls gather.
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Sunlight
- Full sun, which is what brings on the autumn color.
- Watering
- Regular water while young; established trees handle drought.
- Feeding
- Compost mulch in spring, and no feeding at all once established.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Late winter, and few cuts at that.
- Apr–May Bud Break
- May–Nov Flowering
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- In-row spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- Between rows
- 24 ft 7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow, wide and opportunistic
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3.5 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 59–79 ft across, about 3–4× the width of the plant
These roots go looking, and what they find is drains, soakaways, footings, paving and the border next door. Give it real distance from anything you would mind being lifted or blocked: the reach below ground is several times what the crown suggests.
Vigorous surface roots that lift paths, drives and paving with real determination. A beautiful tree in the middle of a lawn and an expensive one beside a footing.
The habit is Sweet Gum’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Coral spot Coral spot on dead wood
- Iron chlorosis Iron chlorosis on alkaline soils
- Spiky seed balls underfoot — a trip hazard on paths
Trees, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com