I am busy these days and cannot find time for writing, but this entry has been waiting for me so long, for already a few weeks. So now, let me make time for some writing before fall flies away. :)
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Date taken : Nov 2, 2013. Photo credit : My husband |
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Have you been there just like me – admiring beautiful sweet gums every fall day but mistaking them for some kind of maples?
Sweet gums and Maples are no siblings from the same family, but if we have not seen them before, we may be easily confused by their similar leaf shapes.
Sweet Sweetgums (Liquidambar)
Sweet gums are among the earliest trees that kindly brought autumn colors to my area. While other trees were still too lazy to turn colors after a long summer play, those flaming star-shaped sweet gum leaves were already getting ready to color up the streets. I loved them as they gave me a sign and hope for a beautiful autumn foliage.
Days went by, these trees became such a real beauty displaying many fall colors: sweet orange, mellow yellow, and glowing red… It was interesting that some sweet gums chose to sport only one single color and stood as a tree of a whole ardent red, or a tree of a whole glowing yellow, whereas some others were extravagant and putting on several colors at once. Sometimes, just a single sweet gum tree was enough to paint a picture of all fall colors: red, orange & yellow…
They were beautiful and so common on many streets. I noted and loved their every move. But I did not know that I miscalled them as maples :( until one day, I had some reading to learn names of the new leaves I recently found. Then, I learnt that those lovely “maple trees” were actually liquidambar-or sweet gums, not maples.
As a sorry I want to send to sweet gums, let me share with you how we could differentiate sweet gums from maples, and let’s see some more beautiful photos I took with the Liquidambars some weeks ago.
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| Some sweet gums chose to sport only one single color like glowing yellow... ...whereas some others were extravagant putting on several colors at once... |
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| A blaze of color! |
Sweetgums, not maples...
I miscalled those sweet gum trees as maples for many reasons. I knew maple is a large family with many different types of trees, which are renowned for bearing full fall colors. Therefore, as a newcomer here, I easily mistook those sweet gums for maples on remembering a picture of a Japanese maple leaf I had seen before. Japanese maples and sweet gums do look so similar in shapes! But from what I have read, now I know, the big yellow leaf I picked and searched for its name last week turned out to be maples, while the common trees lining the streets I called maples turned out to be sweet gums =)). Really interesting to know!
I have seen and picked their leaves before, so after some reading, the difference between maples and sweet gums has now come to light.
If you feel confused between maple and sweet gum leaves, just look for their fruits, the obvious difference lies there. Maple fruit (samara) is with flattened wings while sweet gum fruit look like a small spiky ball ^_^ I noticed those prickly balls before and now I know they are sweet gum fruits ;)
This is sweet gum fruit :
While this is maple fruit with flying wings
This is sweet gum fruit :
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 Do you notice the spiny balls hanging from the tree? These photos are cropped from my photos with sweet gums last time |
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| I do not have picture of maple fruits. These 2 photos of maple fruits are what I find from google image search. They look like dragonflies  |
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Crunchy crunchy sweet gum leaves |
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Even though I used to miscall them as maples, these sweet gums were and are still so beautiful and so sweet, sweet as how they should be truly called - Sweet gums.
Especially, in a place that fall color is quite iffy and tardy like where I live, sweet gum leaves are really lovely as how reliable their fall colors are. I can count on them for gorgeous autumn foliage …
Especially, in a place that fall color is quite iffy and tardy like where I live, sweet gum leaves are really lovely as how reliable their fall colors are. I can count on them for gorgeous autumn foliage …
(to be continued.
The next post is about maple leaves.
I took some photos with maples last week, but I could not made time to upload them here, so if you are interested, please follow my next post. )
"Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow
Each day is as special as you want it to be."
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