Black Gum Tree Flowers
The flowers give way to inch long blue black fruit that is a favorite of many birds.
Black gum tree flowers. Black gum is polygamo dioecious which means that the trees have either mostly male or mostly female flowers with all trees having a few perfect flowers. Rarely reaches 100 feet in the wild. The flowers of black gum are light green in color and form into pendulous clusters in the spring. Pyramidal when young black gum develops an irregular rounded or flat topped form with age.
Nyssa sylvatica black tupelo pepperidge tree sour gum black gum nyssa sylvatica also called sour gum or black tupelo tupelo tree family nyssaceae prized for its brilliant scarlet autumnal foliage. After a male black gum tree s flowers pollinate a female black gum tree s inconspicuous spring blossoms the female tree bears fruits which appear in clusters and are black or blue black 1 2 to. Summer leaves are a dark green with a high gloss appearance but the most spectacular part of this tree is the fall foliage with many shades of yellow orange bright red purple or scarlet that may appear on the same branch. It is found in moist areas of the eastern united states from maine south to the gulf coast and westward to oklahoma.
Black tupelo black gum nyssa sylvatica one of the most attractive native trees around. Spring summer flower size. Tupelo foliage and almost mature fruit conservation status least concern scientific classification domain. In the fall the tree produces a bluish black egg shaped fruit.
Because of this multiple trees may be needed for fruit set. Fruits are available august october. The names used for this tree are black gum sourgum yellow gum black tupelo cotton gum tupelo gum pepperidge swamp tupelo swamp black gum sour gum or tupelo. The bitter inch blue black drupes are favored by wildlife but are not particularly ornamental.
Insignificant flower bloom time. Gold yellow green white flower inflorescence. Sylvatica binomial name nyssa sylvatica marshall natural range nyssa sylvatica commonly known as tupelo black tupelo black gum or sour gum is a medium sized deciduous tree native to eastern north america from the coastal northeaste. This slow growing tree attains a height of 30 to 50 feet and a width of 20 to 30 feet.
The flowers bloom in the spring from april june are not showy.