| General Description | Liquidambar styraciflua is known as a pyramidal and rapidly growing shade tree in youth, becoming open and spreading in growth habit with age, and having shiny dark-green Summer foliage that changes to a crimson autumn colour, but also having fruits tha |
| Shape | Pyramidal to upright oval |
| Landscape | Shade, specimen, or focal point tree, often planted for its outstanding autumn colour. |
| Propagation | Propagated by seed, rooted stem cutting, or graft. |
| Cultivation | Full sun to partial sun. Performs best in full sun in moist, deep, rich, slightly acidic soils, but is adaptable to dry soils, wet or permanently moist soils, shallow soils, poor soils, clay soils, and neutral to slightly alkaline pH soils. |
| Pests | Chlorotic foliage can result from alkaline pH soils that lead to iron and nitrogen deficiency. |
| Habitat | Horticultural origin. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Thick bark is brown to medium gray, prominently furrowed and ridged with age. |
| Leaf Description | Lustrous dark green foliage in Summer. Either alternate along the terminal stems or clustered on the many lateral spur shoots. Star-shaped with 5-7 points, held on 10 cm long petioles. |
| Flower Description | Monoecious; greenish and ornamentally insignificant, being lost in the emerging foliage. |
| Fruit Description | The spherical and spiny prominent green fruits arise from the lateral spur shoots and are suspended on long peduncles, slowly turning to brown in Autumn. The fruits have many spikes, which open in late Autumn to release the winged small seeds |
| Colour Description | Spectacular autumn colour, often a combination of green, yellow, orange, crimson, burgundy, or scarlet; colouring relatively late, in late October and much of November. |
| Texture Description | Bold texture when in foliage and bare. Thick density in foliage but average to thick density when bare, depending upon the degree of stem corkiness. |
