View source for Nyssa sylvatica

{{SPlantbox
|familia=Cornaceae
|genus=Nyssa
|species=sylvatica
|taxo_author=Marsh.
|common_name=Black Tupelo
|habit=tree
|habit_ref=Complete Landscaping - ISBN 9780376009272
|Min ht box=30
|Min ht metric=ft
|Max ht box=50
|Max ht metric=ft
|height_ref=Complete Landscaping - ISBN 9780376009272
|lifespan=perennial
|life_ref=Complete Landscaping - ISBN 9780376009272
|exposure=sun
|water=moist, moderate
|water_ref=Complete Landscaping - ISBN 9780376009272
|features=deciduous, birds, fall color
|Temp Metric=°F
|min_zone=4
|usda_ref=Complete Landscaping - ISBN 9780376009272
|max_zone=9.5
|image=Black Tupelo, West Point, NY.jpg
|image_width=180
|image_caption=Black Tupelo
}}
'''''Nyssa sylvatica''''', commonly known as the '''Black Tupelo''', is a medium-sized [[deciduous]] [[tree]] which grows around 20-25 m (65-80 ft) tall (rarely to 35 m) and a trunk diameter of 50-100 cm (20-40 in) (rarely up to 170 cm). It is native to eastern [[North America]], from [[New England]] and southern [[Ontario]] south to central [[Florida]] and eastern [[Texas]].

The species is often known as simply '''Tupelo''', but the full name '''Black Tupelo''' helps distinguish it from the other species of [[tupelo]], some of which ([[Water Tupelo]] ''N. aquatica'' and [[Swamp Tupelo]] ''N. biflora'') occur in the same area. The name Tupelo is of [[North American Indians|Native American]] origin. Other names include '''Blackgum''', '''Pepperidge''', '''Sourgum''', and (on [[Martha's Vineyard]]) '''Beetlebung''', this last perhaps from the mallet known as a beetle, used for hammering [[bung]]s, or stoppers, into. The scientific name means "water nymph of the woods" in [[Latin language|Latin]].

[[Image:Nyssa sylvatica.jpg|left|thumb|Black Tupelo mature fruit and starting fall color]]
The [[leaf]] of Black Tupelo is variable in size and shape. It can be oval, elliptical or obovate, and 5-12 cm (2-5 in) long. It is lustrous, with entire, often wavy margins. The leaf turns purple in autumn, eventually becoming an intense bright scarlet. The [[flower]] is very small, in greenish-white in clusters at the top of a long stalk. The [[fruit]] is a black-blue, ovoid stone fruit, about 10 mm long with a thin, oily, bitter-to-sour tasting flesh. There are from one to three such fruit together on a long slender stalk. The [[bark]] is dark grey and flaky when young, but it becomes furrowed with age, resembling [[alligator]] hide on very old stems. The twigs of this tree are reddish-brown, usually hidden by a greyish skin. The pith is chambered with greenish partitions. The branches typically stand at right angles to the trunk.

[[Image:Nyssa sylvatica JPG1a.jpg|right|thumb|Black Tupelo in the autumn.]]
* Bark: Light reddish brown, deeply furrowed and scaly.  Branchlets at first pale green to orange, sometimes smooth, often downy, later dark brown.
* Wood: Pale yellow, sapwood white; heavy, strong, very tough, hard to split, not durable in contact with the soil.  Used for turnery.  Sp. gr., 0.6353; weight of cu. ft., 39.59.
* Winter buds: Dark red, obtuse, one-fourth of an inch long.  Inner scales enlarge with the growing shoot, becoming red before they fall.
* Leaves: Alternate, often crowded at the end of the lateral branches, simple, linear, oblong to oval, two to five inches (127 mm)  long, one-half to three inches (76 mm)  broad, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, entire, with margin slightly thickened, acute or acuminate.  They come out of the bud conduplicate, coated beneath with rusty tomentum, when full grown are thick, dark green, very shining above, pale and often hairy beneath.  Feather-veined, midrib and primary veins prominent beneath.  In autumn they turn bright scarlet, or yellow and scarlet.  Petioles one-quarter to one-half an inch long, slender or stout, terete or margined, often red.
* Flowers: May, June, when leaves are half grown.  Polygamodiœcious, yellowish green, borne on slender downy peduncles.  Staminate in many-flowered heads; pistillate in two to several flowered clusters.
* Calyx: Cup-shaped, five-toothed.
* Corolla: Petals five, imbricate in bud, yellow green, ovate, thick, slightly spreading, inserted on the margin of the conspicuous disk.
* Stamens: Five to twelve.  In staminate flowers exserted, in pistillate short, often wanting.
* Pistil: Ovary inferior, one to two-celled; style stout, exserted, reflexed above the middle.  Entirely wanting in sterile flower.  Ovules, one in each cell.
* Fruit: Fleshy drupe, one to three from each flower cluster.  Ovoid, two-thirds of an inch long, dark blue, acid.  Stone more or less ridged.  October.<ref name=Keeler>{{cite book
  | last =Keeler
  | first =Harriet L.
  | title =Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them
  | publisher =Charles Scriber's Sons
  | date =1900
  | location =New York
  | pages =186–189 }}</ref>

The limbs deteriorate early and the decayed holes make excellent dens for [[squirrel]]s, [[raccoon]]s, [[Virginia Opossum]]s and [[honeybee]]s.  Hollow sections of trunk were formerly used as [[Beehive (beekeeping)|bee gums]] by [[beekeeper]]s.

The glossy beauty of the Tupelo is undoubtedly the reason why it so often is permitted to escape the levelling axe and allowed to stand{{Fact|date=June 2008}}{{Or|date=June 2008}} in the fields with the elm, oak, and maple.  In such a situation its contour is as individual as that of any of its companions.  The stem rises to the summit of the tree in one tapering unbroken shaft, the branches come out at right angles to the trunk and either extend horizontally or droop a little, making a long-narrow, cone-like head.  The spray is fine and abundant and lies horizontally so that the foliage arrangement is not unlike that of the [[beech]].  The leaves are short petioled and so have little individual motion, but the branch sways as a whole.

[[Image:Nyssa sylvatica JPG1b.jpg|right|thumb|Black Tupelo leaves in the autumn.]]

The tree rarely flourishes in exposed positions, but allowed to grow in freedom, sheltered but not crowded, it develops a full round head and lives to a good age.

The flowers are inconspicuous, but the fruit is quite marked, dark blue, in clusters of two or three, sour but eagerly sought by the birds.

Its autumnal coloring is superb; the foliage becomes one glowing mass of scarlet, sometimes dashed with orange.  It is the most fiery and brilliant of all that brilliant group: the maple, dogwood, sassafras, liquidambar, and tupelo.<ref name=Keeler />

{{Inc|
Nyssa sylvatica, Marsh. (N. multiflora, Wang.). Tupelo. Pepperidge. Black Gum. Sour Gum. Tree, to 100 ft., with slender pendulous branches forming a flat-topped usually cylindrical head, sometimes low and broad, or in crowded trees pyramidal: Lvs. usually entire, obovate or oval, mostly acute or acuminate, lustrous above, pubescent on the veins or glabrous at maturity beneath, 2-4 in. long: staminate fls. in compound heads; pistillates larger, 2 or several: fr. ⅓-⅔ in. long, nearly black, acid, with an ovoid stone, little flattened. Maine and Ont. to Mich., to Fla. and Texas.
}}

==Cultivation==


===Propagation===


===Pests and diseases===


==Varieties==


==Gallery==

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==References==
<references/>
*[[Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture]], by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
<!--- xxxxx  *Flora: The Gardener's Bible, by Sean Hogan. Global Book Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0881925381  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *American Horticultural Society: A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, by Christopher Brickell, Judith D. Zuk. 1996. ISBN 0789419432  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *Sunset National Garden Book. Sunset Books, Inc., 1997. ISBN 0376038608  -->

==External links==
*{{wplink}}

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