Timber iQ February - March 2018 // Issue: 36 | Page 55

CONTRIBUTORS - WOOD WORKS
Sweets for my sweet (gum)...
Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is widely grown in many parts of
the world as an ornamental tree but it also has many practical uses.
By Stephanie Dyer
The wood can be satisfactorily air- or kiln-dried.
S
weet gum’s natural habitat extends from the US to
central America and its genus name ‘Liquidambar’ is
from the common name in Mexico, meaning ‘fragrant
resin’. The specific epithet ‘styraciflua’ means ‘styrax
flowing’, alluding to the medicinal storax (fragrant balsam
obtained from the bark of the tree).
The species belongs to the witch hazel family, the
Hamamelidaceae. Sweet gums are large deciduous trees
with tall pyramidal to rounded crowns. The palmately five-
lobed leaves change colour in autumn to yellow, red or
purple and its grey bark is fissured, forming narrow ridges.
Both male and female inflorescences (catkins and brown
hanging balls) are borne on the same tree.
The heartwood of sweet gum is light brown, tinged with
red, often with darker streaks. The sapwood is wide and
creamy white. The wood often has interlocked grain,
producing an attractive ribbon stripe figuring. The wood
has a uniform, fine texture and satiny lustre. It is not heavy,
the average density is 560 kg/m 3 for air-dried wood, but it
is moderately strong and stiff.
The wood is an important commercial timber in the
southeastern US and is used foremost for furniture, interior
finishing and cabinet woods. Other uses include cigar
boxes, woodenware, crating, inexpensive flooring,
plywood, veneer, musical instruments, carving, turnery,
handles and pulp and paper. The sapwood is popular for
toys, packaging material and pallets.
The heartwood is in great demand in England, France
and Germany for furniture manufacture. Apart from its
versatile wood, the species is a source of storax / styrax, a
pathological balsam or resin formed in the bark by wound
stimulation. The resin is collected for a variety of uses,
including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and the manufacture
of glues and chewing gum. Styrene, the hydrocarbon from
which polystyrene is made, was originally prepared from
this species.
// FEBRUARY / MARCH 2018 53