Sweetgum, also called redgum, sapgum, starleaf-gum, or bilsted, is a medium to large tree that can grow to 75-80 feet tall with a straight stem and a pyramidal crown, especially when young. The beautifully glossy, star-shaped leaves have a pleasant, sweet fragrance when crushed. Sweetgum leaves turn a spectacular range of colors in the fall, from bright yellow, orange, or red to purplish-black. The bark becomes deeply ridged at about 25-years-old. Sweetgum makes a nice conical park, campus or residential shade tree for large properties when it is young, developing a more oval or rounded canopy as it grows older as several branches become dominant and grow in diameter. Seweetgum is native to North America and hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 5B through 10A. The easily identifiable fruit, popularly nick-named a "space bug", "monkey ball", "bommyknocker, "bir ball, "gum ball" or "sticker ball", is a hard, dry, globose, compound fruit 1-2 inches in diameter and composed of numerous (20-50) capsules. Each capsule has a pair of terminal spikes, and contains one to two small seeds. You can find sweetgum in several of our gardens – including the Friendship Garden, Fern Valley, the Gotelli Dwarf and Slow Growing Conifer Collection, and the Introduction Garden. In addition, they can be found throughout the grounds in natural woodlands, and there are many trees of that species providing shade in the National Boxwood Collection.