Is Sweet Gum Tree Considered A Hardwood

Sweet gum wood though has been another story.

Is sweet gum tree considered a hardwood.

Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation. Despite the world demand for liquidambar through the centuries little was done with the yield of the north american sweet gum tree. Sweetgum grows in moist soils of valleys and lower sloped areas. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum.

The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation. You painfully find them with your feet. Red gum lumber is considered a specialty product and not quoted in the market reports. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest.

Most of the time the spiked shells are left behind and can be considered a nuisance for anyone walking around with bare feet. The iconic australian gum tree or eucalyptus is largely endemic to that continent and tasmania and comprises over 700 species. Is sweet gum a hardwood or softwood. The yellowish colored sap technically called gum in a hardwood tree is exuded from bark wounds and can actually be boiled down and concentrated into a salve that will reportedly cure skin.

Eucalypts may be found in most environments on the continent from snowy to semiarid regions with the exclusion of tropical rain forests the eucalyptus family has proven to be a valuable resource and has spread across the globe. This tree may also be found in mixed woodlands. American sweetgum liquidambar styraciflua also known as american storax hazel pine bilsted redgum satin walnut star leaved gum alligatorwood or simply sweetgum is a deciduous tree in the genus liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern north america and tropical montane regions of mexico and central america sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the. There has been a lot of debate over whether the sweet gum is a hardwood of softwood.

It did serve as a curative for confederate soldiers dysentery and was harvested during the second world war when asian supplies were cut off. The sweet gum tree can grow to as tall as 150 feet and can live to be 400 years old. Sweetgum is a pioneer species often found after an area has been logged or clearcut and one of the most common tree species in the eastern united. Sweetgum redgum star leaved gum alligator wood and gumtree habitat.

Sapgum is defined by the national hardwood lumber association as lumber produced from the sweetgum tree as containing sapwood in excess of the quantity admitted in the grades of red gum lumber.