I didn’t know what these would be called. Seems they have lots of names such as “space bug”, “monkey ball”, “bommyknocker”, “bir ball”, “gumball”, “conkleberry”, “cukoo-bir” or “sticky ball” (see Wikipedia) In reality they are fruit and that explains why the birds (parrots in particular) go crazy over them.
Liquidamber styraciflua are native here; we call them Sweetgums. But I can’t type what we call the fruit when we step on them barefooted. They hurt!
I can’t imagine wandering around in barefoot in autumn/winter anyway Joan. I guess they would hurt.
Yes, I just learnt the other day that you call them Sweetgums. I imagine because of the fruit. We get a lot of Cockatoos and other birds in the trees as the fruit is ripening.