Nyssa sylvatica Marshall
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Nyssaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree to 30 m; lvs often crowded distally except on rapidly growing shoots, elliptic to obovate, 4–15 cm, usually abruptly short-acuminate to an obtuse or acute tip, entire or rarely with a few coarse teeth, broadly cuneate at base; staminate fls in an umbel or umbel-like raceme, the peduncles 1–3 cm, the pedicels 1–5 mm; fertile fls 2–4, sessile at the end of a peduncle that elongates to usually 3–6 cm, the 5 sep small but evident; fr blue-black, ovoid to globular, 1–1.5 cm; stone with ca 10 shallow grooves separated by low, rounded ridges; 2n=44; fl May, June. The var. sylvatica, as thus described, is a common constituent of moist forests from s. Me. to Fla., w. to se. Wis., e. and s. Ill., Mo., and Tex. The well marked var. biflora (Walter) Sarg., swamp blackgum, grows in wet places, often in deep fresh-water swamps, on the coastal plain from Del. to Fla. and La. It differs in its narrower, more oblanceolate, blunter lvs, shorter fruiting peduncles 1–3 cm, and usually only 2 pistillate fls together; the trunk becomes much swollen at the base when the tree grows in standing water. (N. biflora)
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Common Names
black tupelo, black gum