420 TREES IN WINTER 



TUPELO 

 Pepperidge, Sour or Black Gum. 



Nyssa sylvatica Marsh. 

 N. multiflora Wang. 



HABIT — A tree 20-50 ft. in height with trunk diameter of 1-2 ft, 

 or in the forest 60-80 ft. high, reaching greater dimensions further 

 south; generally easily recognized from the manner of branching alone, 

 though extremely variable in outline. The trunk is erect, generally 

 continuous well into the top, lower branches developed low down on 

 trunk, horizontal or declined often to the ground, upper branches 

 horizontal or slightly ascending, with numerous lateral branches and 

 stubby branchlets forming horizontal layers. The branches are slender 

 and exceedingly numerous, more so than in any other of our trees. The 

 head may be short, cylindrical and flat-topped, or low and broader than 

 tall (see plate lower habit picture), or more commonly as when crowded 

 In the forest, narrow, pvramidal or conical (see plate upper habit 

 picture) or inversely conical and broad and flat at top. 



BARK — On young tree, grayish, flaky, on older trunks darker with 

 deeper furrows and ridges broken into somewhat regular hexagonal 

 blocks. 



TAV^IGS — Slender, smooth or nearly so, grayish to light reddish-brown, 

 producing numerous short slow-growing spurs crowded with leaf-scars 

 on the sides of more rapidly grown shoots. LENTICELS — scattered, 

 inconspicuous. PITH — with thin transverse woody partitions through 

 the ground-mass, best seen with aid of a hand-lens. 



L.EAF-SCARS — Alternate, generally more than 2-ranked, distinct, 

 broadly crescent-shaped. STIPULE-SCARS — absent. BUNDLE-SCARS — 

 conspicuous, 3, simple or slightly compound but in 3 distinct groups, 

 generally depressed, whitish in contrast to reddish-brown of leaf-scar. 



BUDS — Ovate, dark reddish-brown, smooth or slightly downy at tip, 

 the lateral buds generally blunt-pointed, divergent, on vigorous shoots 

 slightly raised on a cushion of the bark, sometimes on vigorous shoots 

 developing a superposed accessory bud larger than the axillary one; 

 terminal bud slightly larger than laterals, about 5 mm. long, generally 

 sharper pointed, wvth slightly curved apex. BUD-SCALES — 3-4 visible, 

 broadly ovate, rounded, terminally somewhat keeled and pointed. 



FRUIT — A small bluish drupe ripening in autumn. 



COMPARISONS — Although the outline of the crown differs widely, 

 the numerous slender horizontally layered branches generally render 

 the Tupelo distinguishable at a distance. Its stubby branchlets remind 

 one somewhat of the Pear Tree. Its broad leaf-scars and 3 conspicuous 

 bundle-scars in connection with the woody partitions in the pith will 

 prevent its being confused with any other tree. 



DISTRIBUTION — In rich, moist soil, in swamps and on the borders 

 of rivers and ponds. Ontario; south to Florida; west to Michigan, 

 Missouri, and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — Waterville on the Kennebec, the most 

 northern station yet reported; New Hampshire — most common in the 

 Merrimac valley, seldom seen north of the White Mountains; Vermont — 

 occasional; Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island — rather com- 

 mon. 



WOOD — Heavy, soft, strong, fine-grained, very tough, difficult to split, 

 not durable, light yellow or nearly white, with thick lighter colored 

 sapwood of 80-100 layers of annual growth; used for the hubs of wheels, 

 rollers in glass factories, ox-yokes, wharf piles and sometimes for the 

 soles of shoes. 



