Sweetgum ‘Slender Silhouette’

There are not many tall trees that maintain a slender profile but Sweetgum ‘Slender Silhouette’ (Liquidambar styraciflua) fits the bill nicely. Towering to heights of 50 feet or more, its width remains around 4-5 feet. This characteristic makes the tree a good candidate for smaller gardens or to accompany tall buildings. They are also effective planted in rows. The tree makes a striking vertical accent.

The Sweetgum tree is known for green star-shaped leaves that turn to vibrant hues of orange, yellow and red in autumn. The tree is also notorious for the small ball-shaped spiky fruits that it drops in the fall. However, this particular variety has less of that and the ones that do fall do not cover a wide distance due to the narrow growing habit. Inconspicuous white flowers appear in the spring.

Sweetgum is an ancient family of trees and has lived in the northern hemisphere for over 50 million years. Fossil records have been discovered in Colorado, Washington state and throughout Europe.

Sweetgum ‘Slender Silhouette’ tolerates a wide variety of soil types including clay soils. It grows best in full sun.