Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua Trees Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 248-365

Have you planted a tree today?
What about this year?
What about last 10 years.
What about in your life?

Here is an ideea. Plant Liquidambar styraciflua.

 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 intemperate climates. It is recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard, spiked fruits.

This plant's genus name Liquidambar was first given by Linnaeus in 1753 from [the Latin] liquidus, fluid, and the Arabic ambar, amber, in allusion to the fragrant terebinthine juice or gum which exudes from the tree. Its specific epithet styraciflua is an old generic name meaning flowing with styrax (a plant resin)

The earliest known published record of Liquidambar styraciflua is in a work by Spanish naturalist Francisco Hernández published posthumously in 1651, in which he describes the species as a large tree producing a fragrant gum resembling liquid amber, whence the genus name Liquidambar. In Ray's Historia Plantarum (1686) it is called Styrax liquida.

Medicinal Uses

The common name for the sweetgum tree's medicinal product is liquid-amber.

When made into a balsam or salve, it is used for 

• skin conditions, 
• hemorroids, 
• ringworm scabies and 
• frostbite. 
• Sweetgum salves have a minor antiseptic value, 
• but work well as an anti-inflammatory. 
• Taken internally, liquid-amber has stimulant and expectorant effects. 
• It is also used internally for sore throats, 
• coughs, 
• colds, 
• asthma, 
• bronchitis, 
• cystitis, 
• vaginal discharge,
• strokes, and is it indicated to 
• have an effect on some cancers.

Mosquito Repellent Tree Silver Dollar Tree: Eucalyptus cinerea

By Liliana Usvat





Silver Dollar Tree: Eucalyptus cinerea. 
Type: Tree. Height: To 20 feet. 
Spacing: 25 feet apart. Light Requirements: Full sun. 
Additional Uses: Attracts wildlife to the garden, the foliage is used in fresh cut flower arrangements as greens, and dried floral arrangements.

Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia, but they are also found in the western United States, especially in Arizona, California, and Nevada. They can be planted anywhere where there is a hot, dry climate.

Native to Australia, argyle apple or silver dollar tree is a broadleaf evergreen tree that will grow as a single trunk tree to 25-60’ tall in its native habitat. 

Bark is reddish-brown, peeling on smaller stems. If grown as an annual shrub from seed in the St. Louis area, it typically grows rapidly to 6-8’ tall by mid-summer. 

Juvenile foliage consists of opposite rounded silvery bluish-green leaves (to 2” long) resembling large coins, hence the common name of silver dollar tree. Foliage is aromatic. Small white flowers rarely appear on juvenile trees or container plants. Foliage stems are frequently used by florists in fresh flower arrangements.


About 150 species have been grown in areas of California and Arizona that have climates similar to the plants’ native Australian habitats; many more have been grown as solitary representatives in arboretums. Eucalypts are the most widely planted non-native trees in these two Western states—for several hundred miles in parts of California.



Propagation Methods:
From softwood cuttings
From semi-hardwood cuttings
From seed; sow indoors before last frost

The Eucalyptus tree serves as primary food to the koala bear. Bees are attracted to the flowers of theEucalyptus, and the honey from these bees is highly prized in Australia. Because of its aromatic and long lasting quality, the young leaves are a "best seller" in flower stores.  Medicinal Uses

Doctors and herbalists around the world use Eucalyptus in medicines to treat many sicknesses such as: 

• infections, 
• colds, 
• flu, 
• sore throats, 
• bronchitis,
•  pneumonia, 
• aching, 
• stiffness, 
• neuralgia and even
•  some skin infections.

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