The Sweetgum tree is native to the southeastern United States and a
member of a genus made up of only six species. The others are found only
in Asia. The first historical reference to the tree comes from the
author and soldier, Don Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Cortez
in 1519 and was a witness to ceremonies between Cortez and Montezuma,
who both partook of a liquid amber extracted from a sweetgum tree. The
tree itself was first noticed and recorded by the historian Alvar Nunez
Cabeza de Vaca in 1542. Once commercially popular for soaps, adhesives
and pharmaceuticals, today its wood is valuable for fine furniture and
interior finishing.
but if you have them growing in your yard as I do, you will go crazy cleaning up the fruiting body that falls onto the ground at every time of year
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