Tupelo or Black Gum
Scientific name: Nyssa sylvatica
This medium to large native tree can reach 60-80 feet in height and three to four feet in diameter. The twisting trunk is densely foliated and has horizontal branches. This tree can be very long lived and is relatively slow growing. The Tupelo can be easily identified in the early fall as it is one of the first trees to change color, from green to yellow, red and then purple! It is a native tree that consistently has a beautiful autumn color. In the south, the more common name for this tree is the Tupelo, while Black Gum is used elsewhere. The white flowers of this tree are famously used as a food source for bees to produce tupelo honey.
Leaves
Simple, oval with an elliptical shape. They have a leathery dark green appearance in summer and turn scarlet in the early fall, before the first frost.
Fruit
In fall, bluish black berries appear.
Flowers
Small greenish white flowers in spring, a favorite of the honey bee.
Is it a Boy or Girl?
There are some plants and trees which only have flowers that are either male OR female, but not both. The term for this is dioecious.
Habitat
It is often found growing with oaks, black cherry, hickory and dogwoods. It is a very versatile tree because it can grow in shade as well as sun and in wet as well as dry soils. As a tree native to the southern United States, but growing here as well, it is well-adjusted to higher temperatures. It will do well here as temperatures rise.
Leaves
Simple, oval with an elliptical shape. They have a leathery dark green appearance in summer and turn scarlet in the early fall, before the first frost.
Bark
Reddish brown and broken into irregular shape, in younger trees turns to a medium grey in a mature tree.
Fruit
In fall, bluish black berries appear.
Flowers
Small greenish white flowers in spring, a favorite of the honey bee.
Ecosystem Connections
Its fruit is eaten by all sorts of birds and mammals, from the very small game birds to the large black bear!
But, in particular it is valuable nutritious source of food to dozens of birds that migrate through our area in fall, on their way south for the winter.
Human Connections
A valuable landscaping tree, it brings beauty in three seasons and provides shelter and food to many birds and animals.
This wood is extremely hard and resistant to splitting which has made it valuable for many different application, most notably railroad ties.
Fall Color
Note the Cone Shape
of the Crown
Deeply Furrowed Bark
Straight Trunk
More on Trees and Shrubs in Lewisboro
Lewisboro was once entirely forested except for patches of open field caused by fire and wetlands and ponds which were expanded by beaver dams. Although it is hard to believe, by 1800 most of Lewisboro’s forests had been cut down and replaced by farms. In 1820 so many trees had been cleared that there was no shade anywhere along the route from Boston to New York.[1] But by the mid-1800’s farming here became uneconomical and as farms were abandoned, the forests began to re-grow. Today, 70% of New York is once again forest, what some call ‘the great environmental story of the United States’[2]. These new forests provide us with beauty and recreation, clean air and water, flood control, erosion prevention, carbon sequestration, cooler temperatures and habitat for other plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.
[1] Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Macmillan, 1983.
[2] An Explosion of Green. B. Mckibben. Atlantic Monthly 275 (April 1995): 61-83.