Autumn leaves · Plate VII

Sweetgum

Liquidambar styraciflua

A star-shaped leaf with five to seven finely toothed points on a long stalk. It looks like a maple’s, but grows singly at each node rather than in pairs, and smells of resin when crushed.

It comes from eastern North America and the mountains of Mexico and Central America, and in Spain it is planted in parks and streets. Its name joins “liquid” and “amber”, after the fragrant resin that seeps from its bark.

Its autumn is one of the most colourful: yellow, orange, red and purple, often mixed on the same tree. Its fruits, spiky woody balls hanging from a long stalk, spend the winter on the branches.

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