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그루안

American Sweet Gum

Liquidambar styraciflua · Altingiaceae · 미국풍나무

How to spot it

Deeply cut star-shaped leaves with 5-7 lobes, and hard, spiky round fruit clusters.

Look

Leaves
Alternate leaves with 5-7 pointed lobes, giving a star shape.
Flowers
Small, inconspicuous yellow-green flowers form round clusters.
Fruit
Many small capsules join into a hard, spiky round fruit cluster, holding small winged seeds.
Bark
Bark of mature trees is deeply furrowed, and some twigs develop corky wings.

Where it grows

In Korea
Planted (Hanbat Arboretum)
Native to
Native to the eastern United States and Mexico.
Ecology
In North Carolina it grows from wet river bottomlands and floodplain swamps to relatively dry uplands; birds eat the seeds in winter.

Sources