Synonyms: Black Tupelo, Pepperidge, Sour Gum.
Grows in both moist and dry soil, often in swamps, and occurs throughout the state.
Black Gum grows throughout the eastern United States.
Usually a small to medium sized, understory tree, but can reach 90 feet if growing in the open moist soil. Bark thick, reddish brown or dark gray, roughed by many short fissures and ridges, (Brown and Brown, 1972), but varies, sometimes even on the same tree, from knobbly and deeply furrowed to relatively smooth. Twigs are numerous, short, and wide-angled (approximately perpendicular to branches), giving the tree a characteristic twiggy look in winter that aids in identification. In understory trees, the trunk commonly has kinks or bends in it. Leaves, which vary from short and wide to long, narrow, and tapering, often grow in clusters. They turn crimson very early, sometimes in August. Fruit is a small, singular, dark blue drupe.
The fruits are very attractive to birds.
Host plant for the Hebrew Moth. Host to the leaf miner Ectoedemia nyssaefoliella and the mite Aceria nyssae.
There are 578 records in the project database.
| GA | AL | WA | FR | CL | MO | HO | BA | BC | HA | CE | PG | AA | CV | CH | SM | KE | QA | CN | TA | DO | WI | SO | WO |
