Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica)

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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