Liquidambar

I did a double-take over these. They are similar to the pods of the American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua):but smaller and with much longer points; these are evidently persistent styles. (The pods look rather Goth after they have opened up and dried out.) Also, the leaves are three-lobed: Our Sweetgum has five to seven lobes:So at first I thought it might be a varietal; there is one that produces no fruit, for people who don’t really like to have natural — that is, messy — things in their gardens.

Now, Green-Wood has an impressive range of trees, many fine specimens, but they aren’t necessarily local or even native to North America. Bingo! This is Liquidambar formosana, the Chinese or Formosan Sweetgum. Wikipedia says there are five species in the Liquidambar genus, but their fifth example is that fruitless version of L.styraciflua. The genus name, by the way, looking so unclassical, refers to the sweet sap, the liquid amber, of the trees; in the U.S., at least, this was once used as a chewing gum.

A trio of pods sitting on the table soon resulted in a flurry of little seeds.