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BLACK GUM 



{Nyssa sylvatica ^larsli.) 

 •THE black gum, often called sour gum, has been 

 cousidori'd a weed in the forest. Weed-like, it 

 finds footing in many types of soil and conditi«ns of 

 soil moisture throughout the State. In the lowlands 

 it is occasionally found in year-round swamps with 

 cypress, and in the hills and mountains on dry slopes 

 with oaks and hickories. 



BLACK GUM 

 One-half natural size. 



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The leaves are simple, 2 to 3 inches long, entire, 

 often broader near the apex, shiny, and dark green 

 in color. In the fall the leaves turn a most brilliant 

 red. 



The bark on younger trees is furrowed between 

 flat ridges, and gradually develops into quadrangu- 

 lar blocks that are dense, hard and nearly black. 



The greenish flowers on long slender stems ap- 

 pear in early spring when the leaves are about 

 one-third grown. They are usually of two kinds, 

 the male in many-flowered heads and the female 

 in two to several-flowered clusters on different trees. 

 The fruit is a dark blue, fleshy berry, two-thirds of 

 an inch long, containing a single hard-shelled seed, 

 and is boi-ne on long stems, 2 to .3 in a cluster. 



The wood is very tough, cross-grained, not dur- 

 able in contact with the soil, hard to work, and 

 warps easily. It is used for crate and basket 

 veneers, box shooks. rollers, mallets, rough floors, 

 mine trams, pulpwood. and fuel. In the old days, 

 the hollow trunks were used for "bee gums." 



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