{"title":"Black Gum \u0026 Tupelos","description":"\u003cp\u003eNyssa was a water nymph in Greek myth, and Linnaeus handed the name to a genus of trees that stand, more often than not, in standing water. The Creek speakers of the same country had got there first and more plainly: \u003cem\u003eito\u003c\/em\u003e, tree, and \u003cem\u003eopilwa\u003c\/em\u003e, swamp, run together into tupelo. Somewhere along the way somebody started calling them gums, which is simply wrong, since no tupelo produces gum or resin of any kind. The name most likely wandered over from the sweetgums sharing the same bottomland ground. Two and a half centuries later the wrong name is still the one on the tag.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive species grow wild in eastern North America, and they sort themselves along a gradient of wetness. \u003cem\u003eNyssa sylvatica\u003c\/em\u003e, the black gum or black tupelo, is the adaptable one, at home from a rocky upland to a swamp margin, and the longest-lived broadleaf tree in the East; a specimen in a hummocky swamp in southern New Hampshire has been dated past six hundred and seventy years. \u003cem\u003eNyssa biflora\u003c\/em\u003e holds the wet flatwoods. \u003cem\u003eNyssa aquatica\u003c\/em\u003e takes the river swamps proper, where the trunk swells into a buttressed base you can recognize from a canoe. And \u003cem\u003eNyssa ogeche\u003c\/em\u003e, the Ogeechee tupelo, is the regional treasure, endemic to a narrow band of the Coastal Plain and the source of two good things at once: the sour red drupe Southern cooks turn into Ogeechee lime jelly, and the tupelo honey that will not granulate in the jar.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor a garden, the argument is the autumn. Black gum turns early and turns hard, running scarlet and orange into a deep wine-purple weeks before the rest of the woods has considered the season, an early flare that ecologists read as a signal to migrating birds that the small blue-black fruit is ripe. The rest of the year the tree keeps a straight central leader and tiers of short horizontal branches over a wide lateral root plate, which is what carries the whole structure through weather that flattens the trees around them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo honest cautions come with the beauty. Tupelos form a taproot early and resent being moved, which is why you so rarely see a large one offered at any price, and why the small container plant will overtake a bigger transplant inside a decade. Plant small, plant once. The fruit also drops, so site a tree over ground rather than over a patio. Give sun for the best color, acidic soil, and real attention to water through the first two summers, then leave the tree alone. Find more of the large kinds among our \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/canopy-trees\"\u003eCanopy Trees\u003c\/a\u003e, and the rest of the regional natives in our \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/southeast-natives\"\u003eSoutheastern Natives\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"nyssa-sylvatica","title":"Nyssa sylvatica","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/the-black-gum-chronicles-a-tree-of-history-healing-and-beauty\"\u003eBlack gum is one of the longest-lived hardwoods in eastern North America\u003c\/a\u003e; individual trees have been aged past six hundred and fifty years, standing quietly in swamp margins and rocky uplands while everything human around them came and went. The names alone are a small history lesson. Nyssa was a water nymph of Greek myth, sylvatica means of the woods, so the botanical name reads as water nymph of the forest; tupelo comes from the Creek ito and opilwa, tree and swamp; and the old northern name pepperidge is the one a Connecticut baker borrowed for her farm and her bread company. Curiously, no part of the tree is gummy at all. What black gum does own is the autumn. They are among the first trees to turn and among the fiercest, the glossy summer leaves igniting into scarlet, orange, and deep wine-purple weeks before the rest of the woods has given the season a thought, an early flare that signals birds to the ripening blue fruit. The wood is so cross-grained it is nearly impossible to split, which sent it into tool handles, chopping bowls, and, where trunks went hollow with age, into bee gums, the log hives that made gum a synonym for beehive across Appalachia. Black gum is notoriously hard to move at any size, which is exactly why you so rarely see a big one for sale, and exactly why you should start one small, now, and let them outlive you.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"1 Gallon","offer_id":42841000738931,"sku":"NYSS-SYLV-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Nyssa_sylvatica_fall_HJ3T9sVpygwv.jpg?v=1739207035"},{"product_id":"nyssa-ogeche","title":"Nyssa ogeche","description":"\u003cp\u003eNyssa ogeche, the Ogeechee tupelo, is a medium-sized deciduous tree of the southeastern Coastal Plain, at home from southern South Carolina through the Ogeechee valley of Georgia into northern Florida and Alabama. The genus name honors Nyssa, a water nymph of Greek myth, and the tree lives up to the name, thriving along creeks, river swamps, and seasonally flooded bottoms where the soil stays acidic and wet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBest known of all is the fruit: elongated, bright red drupes borne on female trees that ripen in late summer, so sharply sour that generations of Southern cooks have turned them into Ogeechee lime jelly, marmalade, and a tart limeade. The spring flowers are small and green, easy to overlook, yet they are the source of one of the South's most prized honeys. Bees working white tupelo, as Nyssa ogeche is also called, produce the celebrated tupelo honey, and the tree carries the fitting nicknames bee tupelo and sour tupelo.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn leaf, the Ogeechee tupelo is bold and clean, with large, glossy green leaves that build a full, lush canopy through summer before softening to yellow and orange in fall. Female trees turn genuinely ornamental in fruit, the red drupes hanging clearly against the foliage at a season when many natives have gone quiet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough tied to swamps in the wild, the Ogeechee tupelo is more adaptable than most wetland trees and settles happily into well-drained garden soil as long as moisture is reliable, tolerating both brief flooding and short dry spells once established. With edible fruit, deep regional roots, and real value to pollinators and wildlife, the tree suits larger gardens, pond and stream edges, and any planting that celebrates Southeastern natives and foodways.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057929719923,"sku":"NYSS-OGEC-01G","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-163.jpg?v=1720139822"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/black-gum.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}