Liquidambar styraciflua
Linnaeus
Sweetgum

Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum, courtesy of John Campbell copyright.

Liquidambar styraciflua, also known as Sweet Gum, American Sweetgum, Red Gum, White Gum, Star-leaved Gum, Alligator Tree, Blisted, Satin Walnut, belongs to the Hamamelidaceae family.

"American Sweetgum is a widely distributed large deciduous tree native to the Southeastern USA. It grows in deep acid sands in low wet areas in east Texas. As it ages, its attractive narrowly pyramid form changes to a more oval crown. The five-lobed, nearly star-shaped dark glossy green leaves turn beautiful combinations of yellow, orange, red, and purple in autumn. It suffers from chlorosis in shallow limestone soil, and even in areas with 35 inches of annual rainfall it needs supplemental moisture. The fruit is a spiny capsule that persists into winter." Aggie Horticulture

"Sweetgum grows from Connecticut southward throughout the East to central Florida and eastern Texas. It is found as far west as Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma and as far north as southern Illinois. It also grows in scattered locations in northeastern and central Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua." http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/liqsty/distribution_and_occurrence.html

This medium to large deciduous tree (forty to sixty feet tall in landscapes, taller in the wild) prefers full sun. It blooms in the spring and later bears a interesting spherical, woody, spiny seed capsules.

Sweetgum tolerates high temperatures, but needs much water and prefers acid soils. It is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone: 5.

I still remember very large and beautiful, upright trees growing in our neighbor's (Nanna O'Dell) front yard in Roselle, New Jersey. In 1960, when we moved from Roselle to Pottersville, N.J., my father pulled up some seedlings and transpanted them in Pottersville. The trees are still there today (November 2005) and have fed many Saturniidae larvae. Pottersville is slightly north of the New Jersey range for sweetgum.

The tree will spread by suckers on moist sites.

The Natural History Museum reports Liquidambar styraciflua as a host for the following Lycaenidae species:

Satyrium kingi
Satyrium liparops

The Natural History Museum reports Liquidambar styraciflua as a host for the following Saturniidae species:

Actias isis
Actias luna
Actias selene
Actias sinensis
Actias truncatipennis
Actias maenas
Argema mimosae (Salvador Soares)
Automeris io
Callosamia promethea
Callosamia securifera
Citheronia aroa (Alan Marson)
Citheronia beledonon
Citheronia regalis
Citheronia splendens
Copaxa multifenestrata
Eacles imperialis
Eacles masoni
Eacles oslari
Eacles penelope
Hyalophora cecropia
Hyalophora euryalus
Lemaireia luteopeplus
Rothschildia orizaba
Samia cynthia
Samia walkeri

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This page is presented by Bill Oehlke.

This site is presented as an extension of the
World's Largest Saturniidae Site, a private worldwide silkmoth site,
Caterpillars Too!, a private North American butterfly site featuring images of caterpillars,
Sphingidae of the Americas, a free public access site about the Sphingidae (Hawkmoths) of the Americas.
and
North American Catocala, a free publc access site about the Catocala (underwing moths) of North America.

Tree information is from Aggie Horticulture

Larval hostplant lists have been compiled from the Natural History Museum's
HOSTS - a database of the world's Lepidopteran hostplants