BLACK GUM (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.) 



THE black gum, often called sour gum, has been 

 considered a weed in the forest. Weed-like, it 

 finds footing in many types of soil and conditions 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. 



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 bril- 

 liant red. 



The 

 bark on 



younger 

 trees is 

 furrowed 

 .between 

 flat ridges, 

 BLACK GUM ^ud grad- 



One-half natural size. Uallv de- 



velops into quadrangular 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 borne 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 easUy. 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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