Liquidambar styraciflua

American sweetgum is in the sweetgum or Altingiaceae family and is native to the warm and temperate areas of North America and tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America. It is a valuable forest tree in the US Southeast and a popular ornamental planted widely.

The tree gets its name from its fragrant gum resembling liquid amber when boiled and concentrated; its resin is a kind of native balsam resembling turpentine.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, 5-pointed and star-shaped, with small teeth, and are known for their beautiful orange and red fall colours . Varieties have been developed with either deep or shallow sinuses (spaces between the "fingers").
• Species is monoecious. Male pollinators are upright racemes on single stems. Females are inflorescences are 1-3 cm in diameter, drooping on petioles.
• Fruit is a soft-spiked capsule 2-3 cm in diameter, hanging from branches in large numbers from mid summer to the end of winter, giving the tree a distinct winter appearance.
• Branches often have corky bark, and branchlets are stubby.