“Nature’s Flail”
Heatherwood Liquidambar

Little things frequently catch my attention during my garden strolls. I almost always have a camera with me to record my thoughts. Liquidambars (American Sweetgum) have caught my interest for many years. Their beautiful multi-color fall foliage first caught my eye in a nursery near Woodinville, WA in the late 80’s. I purchased two and planted them at our driveway’s entrance. An ice storm following a heavy snowfall bent the trees to the ground and broke off several branches. The trees never really fully recovered.

My next experience was in Pennsylvania where I again saw the beautiful fall color of a row of sweetgums lining a local nursery. I quickly bought six trees to line the edge of our yard along the road. Fifteen years later, they were the highlight of our neighborhood’s drive.

I am on my third trial here in Central Washington. Two years after I moved in, I planted two more Liquidambars, one on each side of our driveway. They grace our front yard with lush green foliage in the spring and summer, beautiful fall color, and the weapons shown in the image above in the winter.

When I look at these spiked seed pods, they remind me of a spiked medieval weapon called a flail. I don’t want to think how it would feel to be hit by one. However, I have felt the excruciating pain of crawling around on the ground weeding beneath a tree and kneeling on one of the spiked seed pods.

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