A deciduous tree up to 150 ft high in the wild, but not much more than half as high in England. It has a straight, erect trunk, with slender branches forming (as the tree is usually seen in this country) a narrow, pyramidal head. Branchlets glabrous and round at first, but during their second year they turn grey, and often begin to form corky wings after the fashion of the English elm, but in some trees the branchlets remain quite smooth. Leaves maple-like, usually five- sometimes seven-lobed, 5 to 7 in. wide, scarcely as long, heart-shaped at the base, the lobes minutely toothed, ovate-lanceolate; upper surface glabrous and glossy, the lower one with tufts of hair in the axils of the veins; stalk slender, 21⁄2 to 4 in. long. Male flowers in small round heads arranged on a downy spike 2 or 3 in. long; female inflorescence rather larger, 1⁄2 in. wide. Seed-vessels in a roundish cluster 1 to 11⁄2 in. across.
Native of the eastern United States, often in swampy ground, and also of Mexico and Guatemala. It was introduced in the 17th century, and has long been valued for its stately form and handsome foliage. It is often mistaken for a maple, but from all maples is, of course, distinguished by the alternate leaves. In autumn its foliage turns to shades of purple, crimson, and orange. The tree produces a fragrant resin, known as ‘sweet gum’. The timber, although not of first quality, is largely imported under the name of ‘satin walnut’, for furniture making. Under cultivation it likes a good deep soil, and a moderately moist but not a swampy position.
The largest tree at Kew, situated in the Liquidambar collection, measures 90 × 7 ft (1965) and there is a smaller specimen of 62 × 43⁄4 ft by the Clematis wall (1967). At Syon House the largest is 93 × 83⁄4 ft (1967); this was about 75 × 6 ft in 1904. Others near London are: Mote Park, Maidstone, 82 × 53⁄4 ft, and Linton Park, Maidstone, 85 × 6 ft (1965), both superb trees, the latter with a 45-ft bole; Royal Horticultural Society Garden, Wisley, Surrey, 72 × 61⁄2 ft (1964); Knap Hill nurseries, Surrey, 69 × 8 ft (1962); Lydhurst, Sussex, 69 × 33⁄4 ft (1965); Stratfield Saye, Hants, 87 × 9 ft (1968). Farther west the most notable specimens are: Escot, Devon; 74 × 93⁄4 ft and 90 × 7 ft (1965); Arley Castle, Worcs., 72 × 5 ft (1961); Westonbirt, Glos., in The Downs, 67 × 71⁄4 ft (1967).
cv. ‘Levis’. – Branches without corky bark. Leaves brilliantly coloured in the autumn. Distributed by Messrs Marchant of Wimborne, Dorset.
cv. ‘Pendula’. – Main stem pendulous at the top; branches pendulous, forming a narrow crown. Described by Rehder from a tree found growing in Arkansas around 1935.
cv. ‘Variegata’. – leaves marked with yellow.