General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Tree
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Full Sun to Partial Shade
Water Preferences: Wet
Wet Mesic
Mesic
Dry Mesic
Soil pH Preferences: Moderately acid (5.6 – 6.0)
Slightly acid (6.1 – 6.5)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 4b -31.7 °C (-25 °F) to -28.9 °C (-20 °F)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 9a
Plant Height: 45 to 75 feet
Plant Spread: 35 to 50 feet
Leaves: Good fall color
Deciduous
Fruit: Showy
Edible to birds
Fruiting Time: Late summer or early fall
Flowers: Inconspicuous
Flower Color: Green
Other: Greenish-white
Bloom Size: Under 1"
Flower Time: Spring
Underground structures: Taproot
Suitable Locations: Street Tree
Uses: Shade Tree
Edible Parts: Fruit
Wildlife Attractant: Birds
Resistances: Humidity tolerant
Pollinators: Bees
Containers: Not suitable for containers
Miscellaneous: Dioecious
Awards and Recognitions: Other: 2005 Great Plant Picks Award Winner

Image
Common names
  • Black Gum
  • Black Tupelo
  • Sour Gum
  • Pepperidge
  • Beetlebung

Photo Gallery
Location: Nationale Plantentuin Meise (Botanical Garden near Brussels)
Date: 2022-10-17
Location: Aberdeen, NC Pages Lake park east
Date: September 12, 2022
Black gum #330; RAB page 789, 141-1-1; AG page 215, 50-2-1, "The
Location: Colonial Williamsburg 
Date: March 7 2022
Location: Aberdeen, NC Pages Lake park east
Date: September 12, 2022
Black gum #330; RAB page 789, 141-1-1; AG page 215, 50-2-1, "The
Location: Aberdeen, NC Pages Lake east
Date: September 12, 2022
Black gum #330; RAB page 789, 141-1-1; AG page 215, 50-2-1, "The
Location: Aberdeen, NC Pages Lake park east
Date: September 12, 2022
Black gum #330; RAB page 789, 141-1-1; AG page 215, 50-2-1, "The
Location: Fairfax, VA | May, 2023
Location: St Louis - MoBOT
Location: Rock City, Lookout Mt. Ga.
Date: 2018-10-11
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2016-11-05
maturing tree in autumn color in park
Location: Aberdeen, NC Pages Lake park
Date: September 26, 2022
Black gum #330; RAB page 789, 141-1-1; AG page 215, 50-2-1, "The
Location: Los Angeles Arboretum, Arcadia, California
Date: 2012-11-24
Fall color
Location: Hidden Lake Gardens, Michigan
Date: 2021-05-29
Nyssa sylvatica - Bright green new leaves and bloom buds
Location: My garden in N E Pa. 
Date: 2016-10-19
Photo by dave
Location: Longwood Gardens in southeast Pennsylvania
Date: 2014-10-03
young tree in parking lot island in autumn
Location: near West Chester, Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-10-17
crown of tree along woods in autumn
Location: Savannah, Georgia, USA
Date: 2015-04-29
Location: Botanical Garden Copenhagen
Date: 2016-12-04
Location: Hidden Lake Gardens, Michigan
Date: 2021-05-29
Nyssa sylvatica - Chosen to illustrate the new leaves
Location: Botanical Graden Meise - Nationale Plantentuin Meise - Brussel
Date: 2017-09-27
Location: near Malvern, Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-10-28
red autumn color of upright tree at woods
Location: Willamette Valley, Oregon 
Date: 2014-11-01
Location: Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Date: 2021-06-15
old large tree
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2015-05-07
So fresh - so shiny!
Location: Gallup Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Date: 2020-10-23
What causes the strange ruffling or puckering along the leaf marg
Location: Morton Arboretum
credit: Richard Webb

photo by Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service, USA
Photo by dave
Location: southwest Michigan
Date: summer in 1980's
a few young trees together at rest stop
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2015-07-23
maturing tree planted in park
Location: French Creek State Park in southeast Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-08-06
full-grown tree in the wild
Location: Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, PA
Date: 2016-06-15
large tree in summer
Location: Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, PA
Date: 2016-06-15
looking up tree at trunk
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2011-08-05
summer foliage
Location: French Creek State Park in southeast Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-06-13
tall tree in summer
Location: Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, PA
Date: 2016-06-15
old trunk and bark
Location: French Creek State Park in southeast Pennsylvania
Date: 2009-12-24
looking up big trunk
Location: Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Date: 2015-09-11
the fruit
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-10-17
autumn leaves
Location: Willamette Valley Oregon
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden (Mobot) in St Louis
Date: 2016-06-18
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden (Mobot) in St Louis
Date: 2016-06-18
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden (Mobot) in St Louis
Date: 2016-06-18

USGS photograph
Comments:
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Jan 14, 2018 2:18 PM concerning plant:
    The Black Tupelo or Black Gum is a beautiful, high quality tree that grows in the wild in wet bottomlands to upland forest edges from southern Maine down to central Florida into east Texas to southern Missouri & Illinois, in all Indiana up into southern Michigan into the tip of very south Ontario. It is slow to medium in rate, growing from only 4 inches/year to about 1.25 foot/year; in nurseries and landscaping usually about 1 foot/year. It lives about 150-200 years. Its dark, shiny simple leaves are about 2 to 5 inches long and with smooth margins, and leaves turn a good to excellent autumn color from bright yellow in some shade to orange to bright red in more sun. The fruit is a fleshy bluish to purple berry in clusters of 1 to 3 on long stems, loved by birds and small mammals. It develops a taproot and is difficult to transplant, but nurseries can do it in early spring B&B or with containers. This species is sold by some large, diverse nurseries and native plant nurseries. I see it infrequently in the average yard, even in the Mid-Atlantic, unless it was there before the house was built, but I see it in various spots in the wild near the woods in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and occasionally planted at estates, parks, office parks, campuses, and in other professional landscapes.
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