Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is a sweetgum ball from a sweetgum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua, pictured in photo below:
Sweetgum balls are the fruit of the sweet gum tree. Each sweetgum ball is actually made up of dozens of fruits that have fused together. Upon close inspection, the gum ball’s spikes are arranged in pairs, which point toward one another.
As the gum balls dry, they turn from green to brown. During the drying process, holes appear. If you peer into a recently-opened hole, you will see two winged seeds measuring about .25 inches long. Each gum ball will produce 30-50 seeds. Fertile seeds are black with wings on either side, while infertile seeds are yellow and wingless. The seeds disperse by the wind and by animals.
To harvest the sweetgum balls, wait until they are fully brown, but before they dry out. Lay them on a sheet of paper to allow them to dry. Once they dry, they’ll open and release the seeds. These seeds are a food source for many birds and mammals, including mourning doves, finches, chickadees, towhees, chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits.
Researchers have discovered that the unripe fruit of the sweetgum tree contains a key ingredient used in Tamiflu called shikimic acid.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.
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