Is Sweet Gum Tree Considered A Hardwood

The sweet gum tree attracts wildlife including blue jays cardinals mourning doves squirrels chipmunks and luna moths.

Is sweet gum tree considered a hardwood.

It is considered a hardwood species with wood weighing 52 pounds per cubic. Sweetgum redgum star leaved gum alligator wood and gumtree habitat. 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. Sweetgum grows in moist soils of valleys and lower sloped areas.

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. 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. You painfully find them with your feet. The sweet gum tree is the sand spur of the forest.

The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done much to ruin the sweet gum s reputation. There has been a lot of debate over whether the sweet gum is a hardwood of softwood. 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. Perhaps it is time for some rehabilitation.

The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. Some red gum lumber is still produced and even sold on the export. 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.

Most of the time the spiked shells are left behind and can be considered a nuisance for anyone walking around with bare feet. Is sweet gum a hardwood or softwood. Sweet gum wood though has been another story. This tree may also be found in mixed woodlands.

Despite the world demand for liquidambar through the centuries little was done with the yield of the north american sweet gum tree.