Worplesdon Sweet Gum Trees

• Variety: Worplesdon, the pyramid-shaped Sweet Gum
• Common name: Sweet Gum
• Latin name: Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon'
• Sold as: Bareroot standards of 6/8cm and 8/10cm girth
• Mature size: About 20m tall and more than 8m wide, over 10 to 20 years
• Leaves: Maple-like and rich green, with long narrow lobes. Orange and yellow in autumn
• Fruit: Spiky capsules in autumn
• Shape: Branching and pyramidal. The branches grow corky wings with age
• Best soil and site: Moist but well-drained, neutral to acid, moderately fertile soil. Full sun or partial shade, with full sun for the best autumn colour
• Hardiness: H6, hardy through the British winter
• RHS Award of Garden Merit: Yes (1993)
• Delivered: Bareroot, November to April. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Worplesdon is a pyramid-shaped Sweet Gum grown for its autumn leaves, which turn orange and yellow. It reaches about 20 metres over 10 to 20 years in moist, neutral to acid soil, colours best in full sun, and holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Worplesdon Sweet Gum Trees

Worplesdon is an ornamental Liquidambar grown for its wonderfully coloured autumn foliage.
The star shaped leaves are lush, glossy green in summer and, starting in September, one of autumn's highlights, looking splendid for almost three months as a wide range of glowing reds and oranges with a few purple touches engulfs the tree.
The fallen leaves keep the gum's sweet aroma; a bundle of them in the garden shed will smell good for several weeks.

The rich brown young bark is unusually textured with corky scales and becomes ridged as it ages.

The flowers in April-May are distinctive, but hard to see among the leaves, being yellow-green piles of male buds from which dangle whitish-green female flowers. The female part matures into a spiky fruit husk, which are used in pot-pourri, and decorate the tree well into winter, providing some interest for birds. To deter dogs and cats from your flower beds, try covering them with these prickly seed cases (sweet chestnut husks are better).

It takes 10 to 20 years to reach its full height, and mature trees can reach about 20 metres in the British climate.

Browse our large garden trees, or all of our trees.

Delivery season: Liquidambar trees are delivered bareroot from late autumn to early spring, November to April.

Growing Liquidambar

It really loves sunny, moist, acidic sites in the South of Great Britain, where it'll look its best, but it's hardy to H6, and will be fine anywhere in Scotland with shelter from wind, fertile soil, and no frost pocket. The leaves are the main show, so if they're battered, stressed and undersized, the value of the tree is reduced.

In the South, they're good in dappled shade inside a woodland scheme. In the North, they'll be better at the front of the woods.

They want lime-free soil: on chalk, their Autumn colour will be dull rusty-brown, not fiery-red.

Note: Liquidambars don't like having their roots disturbed, and benefit from a longer period of planting aftercare than necessary for most other trees. It's usually best to stake them for two years to prevent wind rock, and vital to water attentively in dry weather into their third summer: by the fourth year, their roots will be solid and increasingly drought resistant, but if there is a drought that year, water them.

History & Trivia

Worplesdon is, of course, a dinosaur, like Stegodon, but since then it is also a town in Surrey, where this cultivar was noted by a local in 1968 and brought to the attention of George Jackman and Son Nursery in Woking, of clematis fame.

Sweet Gum refers to the pleasant smelling resin, called styrax, that the tree emits when damaged. Its heartwood is called satin walnut, which polishes beautifully and makes great furniture.

The species is known as the alligator tree for its bark, which is similar to a native Field Maple, Acer campestre.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Planting Companions

Slender Silhouette is the other Sweet Gum here: a column more than 12 metres tall and only 2.5 to 4 metres wide, where Worplesdon is a broad pyramid. For more autumn colour on lime-free soil, look at the Red Maple, the Pin Oak and the rest of the Maples, or plant a Ginkgo for yellow beside them. Dust the roots with Rootgrow as you plant.

Why Ashridge?

Ashridge has sold trees since 1949 and is a Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025. Your Sweet Gum comes as a bareroot tree, lifted to order while dormant and guaranteed for 12 months. Plant it between November and April, and it will establish readily.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big does a Worplesdon Sweet Gum grow?

It reaches about 20 metres in height and more than 8 metres in spread, over 10 to 20 years. It is a specimen for a large lawn, not a small garden.

Will it grow on chalk?

Not well. It needs moist but well-drained, neutral to acid soil; chalk does not suit it. On lime we find the autumn colour a dull rusty-brown, so choose another tree for chalky ground.

Is a Sweet Gum a kind of Maple?

No. The leaves look like a Maple's, but they grow alternately along the twig, while a Maple's grow in pairs. The Sweet Gum belongs to the Witch Hazel family.

Is there a Sweet Gum for a smaller space?

Slender Silhouette. It grows more than 12 metres in height but only 2.5 to 4 metres in spread, so it takes far less ground than Worplesdon.

When are the trees delivered?

Bareroot only, from November to April, while the trees are dormant. You can order at any time of year and your tree is lifted and sent once the season opens.