American sweet gum: the infamous ‘sticker ball’

In friends' yard. “The fruit is a dangling brown, woody spiny tipped ‘gum ball’ with seeds brownish and winged.” https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_list2.pdf

The tree does, however, have cool, star-shaped leaves, https://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-11-01

Images at PhytoImages, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/taxpage/0/0/79/binomial/Liquidambar%20styraciflua.html

[ IMG_20190317_183454057S675x900tm :: cell phone ]

[GaryW]

Great light.

[Jane Anderson]

I've never heard of these. Do they leave sap or do they hurt--in other words, why are they infamous?

[Thom Mitchell]

@thewatersphotos The lighting from the low sun is what caught my eye!

[Thom Mitchell]

@janeandcharlie They're hard, particularly once they fall to the ground. I suppose the spikes might hurt a bare foot, but the real nuisance is stepping on them and possibly rolling an ankle.

[Rick Schies]

That is one of those dangerous in the yard deals.