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Black Tupelo

The Nyssa Sylvatica is commonly known as Black Tupelo, Blackgum, Pepperidge, Sourgum, Swamp Blackgum, Swamp Tupelo, Tupelo, Tupelo-gum, as well as Yellow Gum

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Growing Regions

Black tupelo grows from southwestern Maine west to New York, extreme southern Ontario, central Michigan, Illinois, central Missouri, and south to central Florida.  It is local in central and southern Mexico. Swamp tupelo is limited to Coastal Plain swamps and estuaries from Maryland and southeastern Virginia south to southern Florida.  It grows on the east side of the Mississippi River to western and southern Tennessee [19,26,44].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for black tupelo is Nyssa sylvatica Marsh [39]. Tupelo is divided into two commonly recognized varieties which are differentiated by habitat: black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica var. sylvatica) occurs on light-textured soils of uplands and stream bottoms and swamp tupelo (N. sylvatica var. biflora) occurs on heavy organic or clay soils of wet bottomlands [44]. This report includes information on both varieties.

Kologiski has included black tupelo as an indicator or dominant in the
following community type classification [33]:

Location              Classification               Authority

se NC                 general veg. cts             Kologiski 1977

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Coladonato, Milo 1992. Nyssa sylvatica In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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