Botanical atlas

American Sweetgum

Liquidambar styraciflua

Long before it was planted for its blazing fall color, the sweetgum was known to Native American nations of the southeast, including the Choctaw, Cherokee, and Alabama, for the fragrant resin that weeps from cuts in its bark. That resin, sometimes called American storax, was chewed fresh like gum, rubbed on wounds and sores, and folded into salves meant to soothe the skin. Early American settlers learned the practice from Native neighbors and carried the habit into their own households, using the gum for coughs, sore throats, and stubborn skin troubles, and the sticky bark strips were sometimes simmered into a tea for the stomach. It became such a familiar dooryard remedy that soldiers on both sides of the Civil War reportedly chewed sweetgum resin to settle an unsettled gut when other medicine was scarce.

Safety.

The hardened seed balls are a real trip-and-fall hazard underfoot, and the fresh resin can irritate skin in sensitive people, so patch test before wider use. Raw resin shouldn't be taken internally beyond small, traditional amounts.