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Sweetgum: Liquid Amber Helped Civil War Soldiers

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published January 12, 2015 at 8:18 PM EST

One of the most under-appreciated native trees in Louisiana grows in every parish, is important to wildlife, and has a fascinating local history. During the Autumn it is one of our most colorful trees as leaves on the same tree may be purple, burgundy, orange and yellow.

(adapted from Flora and Fauna of the Civil War by Kelby Ouchley, LSU Press)

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley