Types of Sweetgum – Fall Color or Species

Choose sweetgum by job: a named fall-color selection or the species tree. Those are the kinds here.

Choose a named fall-color sweetgum or the species tree

Read the Latin on the tag. Dark crimson fall color is L. styraciflua ‘Lane Roberts’. [1] Long, finger-like lobes and orange-yellow fall are L. styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’. [2] Both still fruit. The species baseline is L. styraciflua, with more variable fall color from seed. [3]

Browse by kind

Named fall-color sweetgums

L. styraciflua ‘Lane Roberts’ turns deep blackish-crimson in fall. L. styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ has long, finger-like lobes that go orange and yellow — and it still sets gum balls.

Species American sweetgum

L. styraciflua is the American sweetgum baseline: star leaves, corky twigs on many trees, and a full gum-ball crop. Seedling fall color varies.

Not maple, and not fruitless Rotundiloba

Maple leaves sit opposite on the twig and the fruit is a winged pair, not a spiky ball. Sweetgum leaves are alternate, with five to seven pointed lobes. Formosan or Chinese sweetgum (Liquidambar formosana) is a different species. Fruitless ‘Rotundiloba’ is a rounded-lobe tag other shops sell, and it still has aggressive roots. [4]

If the tag says maple or Rotundiloba, it is a different plant — read the Latin before you site it as these sweetgums.