Scented Monkey Balls

These little “Monkey Balls” are the seed pods that fall from the popular ornamental Liquidambar (Liquidambar Styraciflua) trees in our neighborhood. These trees are also known as American Sweetgum trees, which produce “gumballs.” Our neighborhood streets are lined with these beautiful trees, and every Spring we get a ton of these cute little prickly balls. Our children love to collect them on the way home from school, and it has even become a family event. Our neighbors don’t mind the children cleaning up after their trees. After all, how many people have sprained an ankle on these? In California, they are known as, “ankle biters,” or, “ankle twisters.”

The prickly “Monkey Balls” in the picture were scented with Potpourri Spice fragrance oil. You can choose any fragrance from our candle fragrance list, or choose pure essential oils. Monkey Balls are packaged in our 100% ALL natural plant-based cellophane bags with our biodegradable label, made of sugar cane, bamboo and cotton linters, with soy based inks and a water-based adhesive. You can compost the entire package and it will biodegrade. Monkey Balls are a seasonal item. They grow in the Spring, and dry up during the Fall and Winter seasons after all of the leaves have fallen. They drop from the trees in the Spring, while at the same time little green ones are beginning to grow. Monkey Balls are biodegradable and a renewable resource harvested from our own neighborhood Liquidambars. When they lose their fragrance, you can compost them and return them to the ground in which they came. If you’re lucky, you might grow a tree and help stop global warming! Our tree was given to Ellora in 2001 from our neighbors, the Evans family.