Sweetgum - Liquidambar - Ocozol - Photos.

The Sweetgum originally comes from the United States of America. It is a shade tree that is similar to the Plane tree - Plátano de Sombra, so it is also used to decorate parks and streets. There are parts of the Sweetgum that are used for medicinal purposes. Even though it's not the most common of trees in Madrid, you can still find some just the same.

  

Sweetgums in parks along streets

In the two photos above, you can directly compare the Sweetgum to the Planetree. In the first photo, the Plane trees are on the left and the Sweetgums on the right. In the second photo, the Sweetgums are on the left and the Planetrees on the right. Notice that the branches of the Sweetgums start nearer to the ground, while the branches of the Plane trees start higher. However, notice that some of the lower branches of the Planetree have been cut.

Sweetgum Tree

As you can see, the branches of the Sweetgum on the left start very near the grass. This is different from the Planetree on the right. However, local gardeners could possibly cut off the lower branches of the Sweetgum, making it more difficult to identify.

Sweetgum fruit

The star-shaped leaves and prickly fruit of the Sweetgum (on the left) look very similar to the ones on the Planetree (on the right).

Sweetgum leaves

Sweetgum trunk

Notice the little parallel horizontal marks on the bark of this Sweetgum tree on the left. The tree trunk of the Sweetgum is very different from the tree trunk of the Planetree on the right.

American Sweetgum - Liquidambar Styraciflua - (In the Royal Botanical Gardens)

Read more: Liquidambar Styraciflua on Wikipedia