Sweet Gum: The Beautiful Yet Controversial Tree

Talking Trees with Davey Tree · Nov 6, 2025 · 20m

Lou Meyer from Davey's Mid-Atlantic region talks all about the sweet gum tree, including its biology, unique features and pros and cons.

In this episode we cover:

Sweet gum's spiky seeds (1:35)

Why are they called "sweet gum?" (4:12)

How large do they get? (6:00)

Sweet gums aren't planted much (7:03)

What to do about your sweet gum's surface roots (9:07)

Where do they grow? (10:52)

Are the black gum and sweet gum related? (11:39)

Sweet gum identifying features (12:42)

Crafts with sweet gum seeds (14:54)

Fruit regulators (16:00)

Do sweet gums belong in the forest? (18:15)

To find your local…