This picture just about says it all!  The native sweetgum is often maligned because of its prickly seed pods, and they can be a nuisance when they fall in late winter/early spring, but to me the beauty of this tree is worth the two hours of raking. Plus, it is riddled with the horizontal lines of holes from yellow-bellied sapsuckers!  We planted this tree almost 35 years ago, in the spring of 1980, right after we moved in. The folks gave us a one-foot-tall seedling from their yard, and I remember Dad telling Sam, in his dry, understated way, “I’d chop it down now, if I were you!”.