Who else has access to a sweetgum tree???? Sweetgum: A Medicine Tree w/ Shikimic Acid to Halt Viral Replication
dem trees grow in a small part of TX, OK, IL, MO parts of IN, OH, WV, FL AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, SC, NC, VA, NJ, KY, plus plus
If you can get it to burn, it's black smoke. Hard wood when green, Also called war wood by the old folks, Was cut and milled into lumber to fight the war effort in WW2. I have a few trees, probably hard to get too?
I grew up in the Northwest, did do Basic Training in South Carolina (Fort Jackson) and Advanced Training in Georgia (Fort Gordon) but I freely admit I do not know what a Sweetgum tree looks like.
Grows into a full size tree, usually has a twisted grain making it hard to split for firewood, does not burn well if you do manage to split it. Those balls turn brown in late summer and spit out their tiny seeds and drop off the tree, begging for you to step on them with bare feet. For all of their bad qualities, they do make a great long lived shade tree.
Sweet gum trees as far as fire wood very hard to split, rots quickly, not much BTU when burned -old stumps were used to make bread bowls (make bread) Have one that's 18" long Have seen some very old ones 3' long common in SC
the map is a little off - sweetgums have no problem growing all the way up to the Great Lakes - I have a couple and there's a few more in the neighborhood .... their growing cycle is totally wack compared to the more domestic trees - needs some warm weather to get the sap flowing and sprout the leaves - same in reverse for the fall - other domestics will be bare for months and the sweetgums will still have green leaves - then the spiney ball seed pods drop also ......
