Blackgum

Sylvatica Nyssa 

Blackgum 

Blackgum, or black tupelo, holds special value to honeybees, providing an important nectar source for the rare and heavily prized tupelo honey. With a flavor that is described as buttery and floral, and a unique fructose-to-glucose ratio that makes it a safer option for diabetics, tupelo honey is considered the hardest honey for a beekeeper to produce. Biologists have found that about two million tupelo tree flowers only produce one pound of honey and these trees only bloom for three to four weeks each year, during springtime. In the fall, its leaves turn a beautiful scarlet red. 

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Blackgum Sylvatica Nyssa  

COMMON NAMES  blackgum, black tupelo, tupelo gum, sourgum  

QUICK GUIDE  Leaves alternate, simple, many obovate, margin entire but saplings sometimes with a few dentate teeth near the apex; leaf scar with three bundle scars; fruit a drupe, blue-black, with a shallowly ridged stone; bark variable, commonly gray-brown and thickly ridged or blocky.  

DESCRIPTION  Leaves are alternate, simple, deciduous, elliptical to obovate or oval, and 5-16 cm (2.0-6.3 in) long; apex is acute or abruptly acuminate; base is cuneate to blunt; margin is entire or has three to five dentate teeth near the apex (mostly on saplings); underside is glabrous or has a fine pubescence; autumn color is bright red.  Twigs are slender, red-brown, glabrous, and diaphragmed, with lenticels; leaf scar is almost round with three bundle scars. The terminal bud is ovoid and about 6 mm (0.2 in) long; scales are overlapping, red-brown to green-brown, and glabrous or have pale or golden pubescence. Flowers are imperfect or perfect and yellow-green and bloom in the spring after the leaves; staminate flowers are clustered  in round heads; pistillate flowers have a prominent style and stigma and are arranged in groups of up to five at the end of a long stalk.  Fruit is a drupe, ovoid, about 1.3 cm (0.5 in) long, blue-black, and juicy, with a shallowly ribbed stone. There are usually three to five drupes on a long stalk, and the fruit matures in late summer to early fall. Large branches are often at a 90-degree angle to the trunk. Bark is gray-brown and highly variable, ranging from deeply grooved and blocky to shallowly grooved with flattened or scaly ridges. The growth form is up to 24 m (80 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in diameter. 

HABITAT A wide variety of sites ranging from dry uplands to edges of streams and swamps.  

NOTES Blackgum is a component of many forest cover types and common throughout Alabama. The wood is white to gray-brown, moderately hard, and moderately heavy, and is used for pulpwood, veneer, containers, pallets, railroad ties, woodenware, and gunstocks. The fruit is eaten by a wide variety of songbirds and game birds, including northern bobwhite, wild turkey, red-cockaded woodpecker, and wood ducks. Black bear, squirrels, foxes, opossum, and raccoon also eat the fruit, and the bark is eaten by beaver. The flowers are visited by honeybees and the nectar is a source of tupelo honey. Of all the Nyssa species, blackgum is the most important to wildlife because of its widespread distribution. It is an attractive ornamental tree because of its good form, brilliant fall color, and tolerance of a range of conditions.  

Nyssa refers to a water-loving nymph in classical mythology; sylvatica means “of the forest,” referring to the ubiquitous range of this species.