Autumn in Jiangnan begins with the sweetgum. After one frost, among the green of the mountains a few trees turn red first, as if someone were walking slowly through the hills carrying lanterns.

The Shape of a Tree

The sweetgum’s leaves are palmate, three-lobed, like an open hand; the petioles are slender, so when the wind passes, every palm on the tree flips over. It grows tall, with a straight trunk and a broad crown, and turns a whole tree red in autumn without a sound.

In spring it first opens small, unshowy flowers; after flowering it sets spiny round fruit clusters, hanging in strings, which split open in winter to release winged seeds that spin away on the wind.

— Du Mu, Tang Dynasty, “Traveling in the Mountains” —

I stop the carriage and sit, loving the maple grove at dusk—

frosted leaves are redder than the flowers of February.

The Red After Frost

Around Frost’s Descent, the hills of Jiangnan redden layer by layer: the sweetgum turns first, then the Chinese tallow and the smoketree, until at last the whole mountain changes color. The sweetgum’s red leans warm, as if steeped in honey; against the light, its veins glow translucent.

The ancients wrote of stopping to love the maple grove at dusk—writing about that spread of red in the deep-autumn hills. Much of the red that can cover half a hillside in the south is sweetgum: it may not be the most brilliant of trees, but it is the one that can link into a whole sweep of color.

Sweetgum Resin and Lulutong

The “fragrance” in the sweetgum’s name comes from its resin: cut the bark and a cool, faintly sweet gum flows out, hardening into amber lumps—the medicinal sweetgum resin of the pharmacopoeia, and in old times a raw material for incense.

Its infructescence enters medicine under the name lulutong—”roads all pass through.” A small ball full of passageways, entrusted with the wish that all roads run smooth; it is a remedy old-fashioned people remember around holidays. The name is unpretentious but remarkably apt.

• How to know it: Leaves alternate, palmately three-lobed, finely serrated on the margin; fruit clusters spiny and spherical, like little thorn balls, splitting open in winter to release winged seeds.
• When to enjoy: March to April for new leaves and flowers, deep autumn for red leaves, winter for bare branches and leftover fruit.
• What it means: Sweetgum resin is also called lulutong, in old times an emblem of smooth travel; in poetry the maple is often linked with autumn and with journeys.

Uses Among People

The sweetgum has an upright form, tolerates poor and dry soil, and is now one of the most common street trees in the south. In summer its shade spreads over the ground; in autumn a tree turns red, and fallen leaves crunch underfoot.

Its wood is fine-grained; in old times it made chests and tea trays. Its leaves were also a traditional dye material, able to give a greenish black. One sweetgum, from mountain to street, serves more purposes than people imagine.

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Keywords: Frost’s Descent · autumn-colored leaf · sweetgum resin · lulutong