Liquidambar styraciflua 'Thea'

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Hamamelidaceae

Shrubs or trees , evergreen or deciduous, hermaphroditic , andromonoecious, or monoecious. Indumentum usually of stellate hairs or stellate or peltate scales . Buds perulate or naked. Leaves distichous or spiral , rarely subopposite or opposite, stipules minute to large, usually paired (solitary and enclosing bud in Mytilaria, and apparently absent in Rhodoleia) ; petiole usually well defined; leaf blade simple or palmately lobed , pinnately veined or palmately 3 5-veined. Inflorescences usually spikes or heads , rarely racemes or (condensed) thyrses or panicles, axillary or terminal . Flowers small to medium-sized, bracteate and often bracteolate , bisexual or unisexual , actinomorphic or rarely zygomorphic (Rhodoleia), hypogynous to epigynous , floral cup shallow to urn-shaped, sometimes absent; sepals 4 or 5( 10), sometimes absent, imbricate, usually persistent ; petals absent or 4 or 5, yellow, white, greenish or red, often ribbonlike and circinate in bud, caducous ; stamens 4, 5, or many, free , rarely arranged in 2 whorls with the inner whorl staminodal, development of polyandrous androecia centripetal or centrifugal ; anthers basifixed , thecae mostly bisporangiate , each opening by two valves or a simple longitudinal slit, or monosporangiate and opening by a single valve (Exbucklandia, Hamamelis and the genera of the S hemisphere), connective protruding; disk scales sometimes present between stamens and carpels. Ovary 2-locular, carpels free at apex; ovules mostly 1 per carpel, less often many, but then most of them sterile , crassinucellar, bitegmic, anatropous , halfway between apotropous and epitropous , pendent from ovary top if solitary, along the carpellary margins if numerous ; placentation axile . Styles and stigmas 2. Fruit a capsule, dehiscing septicidally, septifragally, or loculicidally and 4-valved; endocarp woody or leathery, usually loose from leathery exocarp . Seeds 1 to many per carpel; if solitary then seed coat thick, hard, smooth and shiny, black or brown; if numerous then sometimes winged and only a few viable. Endosperm thin; embryo straight; cotyledons leaflike, radicle short.

About 30 genera and 140 species: E and S Africa (including Madagascar), E, W, and SE Asia, NE Australia, Central, North, and South America, Pacific Islands; 18 genera (four endemic) and 74 species (58 endemic) in China.

Several genera and species need critical revision .[1]

Genus Liquidambar

Trees , aromatic and resinous , glabrous or with simple hairs . Bark gray-brown, deeply furrowed ; liquid, and Arabic ambar, amber] twigs and branches sometimes corky-winged. Dormant buds scaly , pointed , shiny, resinous, sessile. Leaves long-petiolate. Leaf blade fragrant when crushed, (3-) 5(-7) -lobed, palmately veined, base deeply cordate to truncate , margins glandular-serrate, apex of each lobe long-acuminate. Inflorescences terminal , many-flowered heads ; staminate heads in pedunculate racemes , each head a cluster of many stamens; pistillate heads pendent, long-pedunculate, the flowers ± coalesced . Flowers unisexual , staminate and pistillate on same plant, appearing with leaves; calyx and corolla absent. Staminate flowers : anthers dehiscing longitudinally; staminodes absent. Pistillate flowers pale green to greenish yellow; staminodes 5-8; styles indurate and spiny in fruit, incurved . Capsules many, fused at base into long-pedunculate, spheric, echinate heads, 2-beaked, glabrous, septicidal . Seeds numerous , mostly aborting, 1-2 viable in each capsule, winged . x = 16.

Species 3(-4) : North America, e Asia, and Turkey.[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Liquidambar

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 20 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

L. acalycina (Changs Sweetgum) · L. formosana (Formosa Sweetgum) · L. formosana 'Afterglow' (Formosa Sweetgum) · L. orientalis (Oriental Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua (American Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua f. rotundiloba (Fruitless Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua var. macrophylla (Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Aurora' (Aurora Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Burgundy' (Burgundy Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Cherokee' (Red Gum) · L. styraciflua 'Corky' (Corky Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Festival' (Festival Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Gold Dust' (Red Gum) · L. styraciflua 'Grazam' (Grandmaster Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Gumball' (Red Gum) · L. styraciflua 'Palo Alto' (Palo Alto Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Silver King' (Red Gum) · L. styraciflua 'Slender Silhouette' (Red Gum) · L. styraciflua 'Variegata' (Golden Variegated Sweetgum) · L. styraciflua 'Ward' (Ward Cherokee Sweetgum)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Chang Hung-ta. 1979. Hamamelidaceae. In: Chang Hung-ta, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 35(2): 36116.
• Bogle, A. L. 1986. The floral morphology and vascular anatomy of the Hamamelidaceae: Subfamily Liquidambaroideae. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 73: 325-347.
• Duncan, W. H. 1959. Leaf variation in Liquidambar styraciflua L. Castanea 24: 99-111.
• Hill, A. F. 1952. Economic Botany. New York.
• Holm, T. 1930. Leaf-variation in Liquidambar styraciflua L. Rhodora 32: 95-105.
• Sargent, C. S. 1890-1902. The Silva of North America.... 14 vols. Boston and New York. Vol. 5, pp. 7-12.
• Schery, R. W. 1952. Plants for Man. New York.
• Schmitt, D. 1966. Pistillate inflorescence of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.). Silvae Genet. 15(2): 33-35.
• Wilson, P. 1905. Altingiaceae: Liquidambar. In: N. L. Britton et al., eds. 1905+. North American Flora.... 47+ vols. New York. Vol. 22, p. 189.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed March 27, 2012.

Identifiers

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1839652

Footnotes

1. Zhi-Yun Zhang, Hongda Zhang & Peter K. Endress "Hamamelidaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 18. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. "Liquidambar". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.