Poisonous Sweet Gum Tree Balls

It is recognizable by the combination of its five pointed star shaped leaves and its hard spiked fruits.

Poisonous sweet gum tree balls. I think my dog has eaten some sweet gum balls from a sweet gum tree. While you can t eat the balls or the seeds pioneers once peeled the bark and scraped the resin like solid to produce chewing gum and medicines. Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller. When i m pulling a wagon full of kids they can make travel difficult.

A tree that is a candidate for the injection must have a trunk at least 2 inches in diameter and the tree cannot have received a spray or soil treatment within two weeks. Simon has crashed his bike more than once when his front tire hit one. If your sweet gum is too tall to spray or if you don t want to attempt spraying a small tree you can stop fruit production by having a certified arborist administer a trunk injection. They are hard round balls about 1 1 2 inches in diameter and covered with sharp little bristles that can hurt a dog s paws.

It s sweet gum ball time of year again and that means you may find yourself slipping on these prickly round seeds. Despite these nuisances we always slow down to take a look and to collect the unusual alien balls we always end up with. I ve twisted my ankle on them more than once. Birth control injections for sweet gum trees.

On our typical route there are 3 trees that bear these weird little balls. The american sweet gum is a popular tree in the st. It is currently classified in the plant family altingiaceae but was formerly considered a member of the hamamelidaceae. While the trees were popular for builders and municipalities to plant due to their medium to fast rate of growth and beautiful color they have become an.

This plant s genus. Sweet gum trees also have unusual fruit. It s currently flu season which means many people are hom. American sweetgum trees can be found throughout must of the eastern us.

Sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern united states and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. The certified arborist will inject the. The sweet gum s primary liability according to the makers of this list are the thousands of spiny brown seed balls gum balls if you will that it casts upon the ground around it. She s a flat coated retriever about 75 lbs.

She always is trying to eat something but now she s very lethargic and is drinking lots of water. Sweet gum trees are so beautiful until you want to walk barefoot through your lawn. According to the lazy landscaper these hard brown spiky balls that can create some serious hazards. I think she may have ingested them this morning.

The balls of the trees are modified fruits that house the seeds until the balls ripen and release the seeds. The tree s dark grayish brown twigs bear unusual corky ridges that lend the tree a peculiar angularity.