Photograph: A sweetgum grove and the stream running through it · Köyceğiz · M.Barış Ak, courtesy of the photographer
Oriental sweetgum (Liquidambar orientalis) grows wild only in Türkiye and on the island of Rhodes17, and this basin holds its largest stands.12 The forest around the lake fell from 6,500 to 800 hectares in fifty years. The balsam's story, though, is not over: unlicensed tapping is illegal, and production continues under the state — the Köyceğiz Forest Directorate's plant at Kavakarası runs an April-to-October season, with 1 tonne of oil and 3 tonnes of incense planned for 2026 from a 50-hectare stand.14 The craft has not vanished but has narrowed to a single facility and a small area; the breadth of the knowledge — stripping bark, distilling, storing the balsam — still waits to be recorded. Nor does the tree stand alone: the sweetgum forest carries an insect community of its own.13