The Liquidambar orientalis is a tree belonging to the Hamamelidaceae family, reaching heights of 10–15 meters. Its leaves are alternate with long petioles; stipules are small and deciduous early. The leaves are palmately lobed, typically with 5 lobes, occasionally 3 or 7, the lobes ovate or oblong-ovate, with acute tips, cordate bases, and serrated margins. The flowers are unisexual and monoecious, mostly forming globose inflorescences, with small yellow-green florets; the male inflorescences are arranged in racemes, lacking petals and having only bracts, with numerous stamens, oblong anthers splitting longitudinally into two chambers, and short filaments; the female inflorescences are solitary, with pendulous pedicels, tiny perianths, and numerous carpels fused at the base, the ovary semi-inferior, bilocular, containing several ovules, with two curved styles. The fruit cluster is spherical, approximately 2.5 cm in diameter, aggregating many capsules with persistent spiny styles; the capsules have beak-like tips and split open at maturity. Seeds number 1–2, narrowly oblong, flattened, and winged at the apex.