photoartflightSweet Gum Fall Leaves
The community we live in now have beautiful tree lined streets. Many of them are American Sweetgum trees. In the Fall, it is amazing the different colors of leaves in the same trees. The leaves are 5 pointed star shaped and in the same tree many different sizes, from small to large. They also have a hard multi-spiked fruit that looks like a spiked ball. These are from late fall so the leaves were getting scarce in the trees. Work sometimes gets in my way for posting here.
photoartflight 
As you noted, sweetgum trees have great autumn foliage. This species is native in the eastern part of Texas but not in Austin, though I’ve occasionally seen a cultivated one here.
Yes, they are interesting trees. I like them, but here in the Northeast a lot of towns and communities planted them, so there are streets lined with them. But a lot of people hate them because they think they are a “Messy and Annoying” tree because of the spiky fruit. They think it is a mess to cleanup after in the Fall.