Sweetgum

 

If I had to choose my least favorite tree, I think I’d pick the Sweetgum.  The tree has nasty balls that fall and litter the ground beneath its branches.  These are hard and  bur like.   They can trip an old person causing a fall.  The tree is called a gum because once the rosin was used in making chewing gum.  The leaves turn pretty in the fall reminding me of a Maple.  The leaves are easily distinguished as they are five pointed.  Sweetgum trees grow very large and can live 400 years.  We have a few in Galla Meadow.

Nasty Sweetgum balls have a use.   The sweetgum’s fruit-laden limbs hold its own humble contribution to humanity. The infertile seeds found in each of the sweetgum’s seed capsules are a naturally occurring source of shikimic acid, one of the main ingredients in the manufacture of Tamiflu.