What kind of tree produces these seed pods looking like spiky balls?
I recently moved to southern Virginia near the coast (about 15 miles in from it). All over the ground are these spiky balls that I assume contain seeds to the tree they fall off of.
There are literally thousands of these things on the ground. When they first fell, they were green in color. I would have grabbed a picture of the bark of the tree, but the tree that dropped these is covered in some sort of ivy vine that's growing up it and I couldn't get a good picture of the bark. The trees aren't near any water sources.
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1 answer
That is a sweet gum tree.
The distinctive compound fruit is hard, dry, and globose,1–1.5 inches (25–38 mm) in diameter, composed of numerous (40-60) capsules.[13] Each capsule, containing one to two small seeds, has a pair of terminal spikes (for a total of 80-120 spikes). When the fruit opens and the seeds are released, each capsule is associated with a small hole (40-60 of these) in the compound fruit.
Fallen, opened fruits are often abundant beneath the trees; these have been popularly nicknamed "burr (or bir) balls",[14] "gum balls",[19] "space bugs", "monkey balls", "bommyknockers", "sticker balls",[20] or "goblin bombs".
See this page for an almost identical picture of the spiky ball and this one (via @Sue) to show the range which means that they are definitely in Virginia.
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