What is "liquidambar styraciflua"

gum tree \gum" tree`\ n. Any tree that exudes a gum, such as:

1. The black gum ( Nyssa multiflora), one of the largest trees of the Southern States, bearing a small blue fruit, the favorite food of the opossum. Most of the large trees become hollow.

2. A tree of the genus Eucalyptus; a eucalypt. See Eucalpytus.

3. The sweet gum tree of the United States ( Liquidambar styraciflua), a large and beautiful tree with pointedly lobed leaves and woody burlike fruit. It exudes an aromatic terebinthine juice.

4. The sour gum tree.

Liquidambar \Liq"uid*am`bar\ (l[i^]k"w[i^]d*[a^]m`b[~e]r), n.

1. (Bot.) A genus consisting of two species of tall trees having star-shaped leaves, and woody burlike fruit. Liquidambar styraciflua is the North American sweet qum, and Liquidambar Orientalis is found in Asia Minor.

2. The balsamic juice which is obtained from these trees by incision. The liquid balsam of the Oriental tree is liquid storax.

Storax \Sto"rax\, n. [L. storax, styrax, Gr. ?. Cf. Styrax.] Any one of a number of similar complex resins obtained from the bark of several trees and shrubs of the Styrax family. The most common of these is liquid storax, a brown or gray semifluid substance of an agreeable aromatic odor and balsamic taste, sometimes used in perfumery, and in medicine as an expectorant.

Note: A yellow aromatic honeylike substance, resembling, and often confounded with, storax, is obtained from the American sweet gum tree ( Liquidambar styraciflua), and is much used as a chewing gum, called sweet gum, and liquid storax. Cf. Liquidambar.

Sweet \Sweet\, a. [Compar. Sweeter; superl. Sweetest.] [OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. sw[=e]te; akin to OFries. sw[=e]te, OS. sw[=o]ti, D. zoet, G. s["u]ss, OHG. suozi, Icel. s[ae]tr, s[oe]tr, Sw. s["o]t, Dan. s["o]d, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. ?, Skr. sv[=a]du sweet, svad, sv[=a]d, to sweeten. [root]175. Cf. Assuage, Suave, Suasion.]

1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; -- opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges.

2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.

   The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.
   --Longfellow.

3. Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer.

   To make his English sweet upon his tongue.
   --Chaucer.

   A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful.
   --Hawthorne.

4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.

   Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.
   --Milton.

5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water.
   --Bacon.

6. Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically:

   1. Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread.

   2. Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish.

7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners. Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades? --Job xxxviii. 3

   1. Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold. Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc. Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum. Sweet apple. (Bot.)

      1. Any apple of sweet flavor.

      2. See Sweet-top. Sweet bay. (Bot.)

         1. The laurel ( laurus nobilis).

         2. Swamp sassafras. Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora ( P. maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple. Sweet cicely. (Bot.)

            1. Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers.
               --Gray.

            2. A plant of the genus Myrrhis ( M. odorata) growing in England.

               Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. (Bot.) Same as Sweet flag, below.

               Sweet Cistus (Bot.), an evergreen shrub ( Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained.

               Sweet clover. (Bot.) See Melilot.

               Sweet coltsfoot (Bot.), a kind of butterbur ( Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America.

               Sweet corn (Bot.), a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn.

               Sweet fern (Bot.), a small North American shrub ( Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves.

               Sweet flag (Bot.), an endogenous plant ( Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus,

   2. Sweet gale (Bot.), a shrub ( Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; -- also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale. Sweet grass (Bot.), holy, or Seneca, grass. Sweet gum (Bot.), an American tree ( Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar. Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes. Sweet John (Bot.), a variety of the sweet William. Sweet leaf (Bot.), horse sugar. See under Horse. Sweet marjoram. (Bot.) See Marjoram. Sweet marten (Zo["o]l.), the pine marten. Sweet maudlin (Bot.), a composite plant ( Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil. Sweet oil, olive oil. Sweet pea. (Bot.) See under Pea. Sweet potato. (Bot.) See under Potato. Sweet rush (Bot.), sweet flag. Sweet spirits of niter (Med. Chem.) See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit. Sweet sultan (Bot.), an annual composite plant ( Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered ( C. odorata); -- called also sultan flower. Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. [Colloq.] Sweet William.

      1. (Bot.) A species of pink ( Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties.

      2. (Zo["o]l.) The willow warbler.

      3. (Zo["o]l.) The European goldfinch; -- called also sweet Billy. [Prov. Eng.]

         Sweet willow (Bot.), sweet gale.

         Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry.

         To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. [Colloq.]
         --Thackeray.

         Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.

Liquidambar styraciflua, commonly called American sweetgum, sweetgum, sweet gum, sweet-gum (sweet gum in the UK), hazel pine, American-storax, bilsted, red-gum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, or alligator-wood is a deciduous tree in the genus Liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern North America and tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America. Sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern United States, and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. It is recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard, spiked fruits. It is currently classified in the plant family Altingiaceae, but was formerly considered a member of the Hamamelidaceae.