Liquidambar formosana

Formosan sweetgum is a species of tree in the sweetgum or Altingiaceae family native to East Asia. Trees can be up to 25 m tall, straight or wide-spreading.

• The leaves are alternate, simple, 10–15 cm wide and are three-lobed unlike 5–7-lobed leaves of American sweetgum (L. styraciflua). Foliage turns a very attractive red colour in autumn.
• Species is monoecious. Male flowers are upright in green flowering heads (racemes) on a single stem; female flowers dangle from petioles and form dense spherical heads with bending pistils pointing outward.
• Fruit is a soft-spiny capsule 2–3 cm in diameter dangling from a stem, initially yellowish-green but drying out by late fall to be brown. It remains on the tree over the winter, giving a distinct winter appearance to the tree.