Liquidambar acalycina

Chang’s sweetgum is a species of tree in the sweetgum or Altingiaceae family native to southern China. It is a medium-sized tree that can grow up to 15 m tall. Form is pyramidal-conical shape.

• The leaves are alternate, simple, 7.5–15 cm wide with 3 large, pointed lobes, unlike 5–7-lobed leaves of American sweetgum (L. styraciflua). Leaves are ornamentally attractive, emerging burgundy in spring, maturing to deep green by summer and finally turning showy red to purple in fall.
• Species is monoecious. Male flowers are upright in green flowering heads (a raceme) on a single stem; female flowers dangle from petioles and form dense spherical heads with twisting pistils pointing outward.
• Fruit is a soft-spiny capsule 2–3.5 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.