Fruitless Sweet Gum Tree?

Can anyone help me? My local nursery has "Worplesdon" Sweet Gum available this spring. When looking on the net, some list this as fruitless, and some say it has fruit. I am looking for a fruitless sweet gum. I love the fall color. A particular sweet gum is used extensively as a street tree in western Washington, and I don't see any seed pods. Is anyone familiar with Worplesdon and does it have fruit? Thank you very much.

I have native sweet gums and some don't have fruit, some do. I've been told it's the difference between one being male and one female. Don't know if that is true but there are fruitless ones.

'Rotundiloba' is a fruitless sweetgum, but I don't know about 'Worplesdon'.
American Sweetgums are monoecious, male and female flowers on the same tree.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55585/ That is not my sweet gum. I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow and see what exactly I have.

Please bear in mind that fruitless plants are worthless for wildlife.

Resin

Resin, they still provide a home. :)

And as mary said---her goal is to enjoy this tree's fall color. I have 2 of these, who knew they came FRUITLESS, wow! I like to be barefoot in the yard and I hate the POKEY balls these things drop. If the goal was to attract squirrels then that they do---and it will attract them right to my veg garden to. :(

I actually go out with trash bag to pick up all these pokey balls every so often. They are not kind to the feet at all. And are a slipping hazard if left on sidewalks to.

Houston has these trees all over. Also popular here are large pines, oaks, chinaberry. All trees that drop something sharp, hard or pokey lol.

My Worplesdon has fruit balls.
I like this cultivar for it's more textural leaf pattern.
Nice fall color, too.
But, sadly, bears fruit. At least mine does.

I also have Rotundiloba and it has no fruit, as Claypa points out above.

Thank you so much for your help. I think I will look at a different tree than the Worplesdon. It sure is beautiful in fall, though. I need to find a good tree to line my driveway. I need about 10 of whatever tree. I guess I should look at the whole picture, not just the fall color. Thanks again.

If you need ten trees, I'd encourage you to think about getting a few different kinds! It never looks right if one dies, and if a disease or pest attacks your trees, they all go.

Try Slender Silhouette. It does fruit, but mine only gets 2 or 3 a year. It would look awesome as a driveway liner. Reminds me of the cypresses in Italy. And nice fall color too. Well last year it did. This year not so much.....


http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/216204/

This message was edited Dec 4, 2008 9:43 PM