Nyssa sylvatica is a shade tree with shining dark green summer foliage, excellent autumn color, abundant fruits (on appropriate flowering forms) that attract wildlife, and a picturesque growth habit with blocky ornamental bark at maturity. Black Tupelo is a native shade tree that is underutilized in landscapes, and is primarily known for its spectacular autumn colors.
Alternate common name: Black Gum
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F E A T U R E S |
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Form
-large shade tree
-maturing at 40' tall x 30' wide under urban conditions, but double that in the wild
-upright pyramidal growth habit in youth, becoming upright oval, upright horizontal, or spreading with age (often quite unpre-dictable in the growth habit of an individual tree)
-slow growth rate under urban conditions, but medium growth rate in native sites |
Foliage
-alternate, obovate to elliptic, and lustrous dark green in summer
-excellent autumn color, a mixture of scarlet, purple, orange, yellow, and green hues of shining foliage on the tree in autumn, slowly abscising |
Flowers
-polygamo-dioecious (most trees have either staminate flowers [male, non-fruiting trees] or pistillate flowers [female, heavy fruiting trees], but some trees have either staminate and perfect flowers [limited-fruiting trees] or pistillate and perfect flowers [heavy fruiting trees])
-whatever the floral state of the tree, the flowers are small, greenish-white, and ornamentally insignficant, appearing in May with the foliage |
Fruit
-bluish-black small oblong fruits, maturing in Sept. and Oct., often profusely borne when present, and readily eaten by birds and squirrels
-the abscised fleshy fruits (or directly correlated bird droppings under the trees) can be a liability |
Twig
-reddish brown young twigs become a smooth light gray by the second season
-branches become densely twiggy with age and have numerous spur shoots |
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Trunk
-brown to dark gray, with prominent ridges broken into rectangular blocks by horizontal fissures, somewhat ornamental and eventually becoming platy with age |
C U L T
U R E
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Culture
-full sun to partial sun (partial shade tolerant in youth)
-performs best in evenly moist, deep, acidic soils, but is somewhat adaptable to either wet or dry soils though it cannot be considered urban tolerant
-propagated primarily by seeds, but stem cuttings from male trees are sometimes grafted onto seedling understock
-Tupelo Family, with occasional leaf spot being the most common cosmetic disease; in general, no disease or pest problems of significance
-moderately available in B&B or container form
-alkaline pH soils should be avoided, as they cause slow growth, foliage chlorosis, and eventual decline or demise of the tree
-the deep taproot system makes B&B transplanting somewhat risky except on very young trees, and therefore container-grown saplings are becoming more popular |
Hardiness
-zones 3 to 9
Origin
-native to the Eastern U.S.
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U S A G E |
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Assets
-consistently spectacular autumn color
-fruits attract wildlife (for those trees that have fruits)
-wet site or dry site tolerant
-blocky ornamental mature bark
-some trees have picturesque horizontal branching and a flat-topped crown with age
Liabilities
-fruit litter and associated bird droppings (for those trees that have fruits)
-slow growth rate in most urban situations
-irregular growth habit for some individual trees |
Function
-specimen, focal point, or shade tree
Texture
-medium-fine texture in foliage and when bare
-average to thick density in foliage and when bare |
S E L
E C T I 0 N S |
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Varieties
and Cultivars
- Search
OSU PlantFacts for additional plants in this species
Alternates
-shade trees for excellent autumn color (Acer rubrum, Acer saccharum, Liquidambar styraciflua, Quercus coccinea, etc.)
-trees with abundant fruits that attract wildlife (Amelanchier, Carya, Crataegus, Fagus, Malus, Morus, Quercus, etc.)
-trees with a flat-topped growth habit at maturity (Crataegus crusgalli, Gleditsia triacanthos [native thorny form], etc.) |