Sweet Gum Tree Balls Inside

Native americans reportedly made a preparation of the balsam to treat fevers and wounds.

Sweet gum tree balls inside. This means that only one tree is needed for the flowers to be pollinated and a single tree can produce the spiky fruits even when another sweet gum tree is not in sight. I can be free. The amber colored gum or balsam gives the sweet gum tree its flavor and its common name. Just like leaves they have to fall in order for the tree to get ready for new growth.

The heavily armored sweet gum balls protect their seeds through winter then break open to let their offspring take wing. This wouldn t have been the case a generation ago. Processing wild crafted sweet gum tree balls to make homemade tamiflu. The round fruit balls are produced from fertilized flowers.

When and why do sweet gum tree balls fall. Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller branches sometimes all winter. If you look very closely they are actually a bit scary looking they appear to be made of a collection of tiny dark brown bird beaks. The balls of the trees are modified fruits that house the seeds until the balls ripen and release the seeds.

Today i venture proudly and safely into the straight world outside the confines of bars and clubs once designated specifically as gay spaces. These compound seed capsules are often confused with the seed heads of the. Green in the spring they darken as autumn and winter pass and they fall from the sweetgum by the hundreds. As a monoecious plant a sweet gum bears male and female flowers.

American sweetgum trees can be found throughout must of the eastern us. In the south some pioneers chewed sweet gum leaves to cure diarrhea. The infertile seeds of the sweet gum ball contain shikimic acid which is also contained in the same tree used to make tamiflu. Turns out they are the seed pods from the sweetgum tree.

Sweet gum balls start out plump and green but they dry as they mature. The spines become even spinier and holes open up to reveal seeds inside the balls. Within my lifetime queer behavior has put people in jail. In the appalachians people dipped the twigs in whiskey and nibbled them to clean their teeth.

By the middle of fall the balls are seedless and dead.