# Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica)

> Blazing scarlet fall color, superb bee forage, and one of the longest-lived hardwoods in the East.

Also called tupelo, black tupelo, sour gum, pepperidge. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-gum/

![Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) in late September, a cluster of blue-black fruit on red stalks among glossy leaves spotted purple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/black-gum-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Facts

- Type: Large tree
- Mature height: 40 to 70 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, dry uplands, swamps and wet flats, old fields and edges
- Native range: 31 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, September to October
- First crop: 2 years from sprouts
- Mature spread: 35 ft
- Traits: Fall color, Honey tree, Wildlife value, Tolerates wet soil, Street tree, Erosion control, Salt tolerant
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Honey Tree Trio.

## Notes

Black gum turns color earlier and more brilliantly than almost any other native tree, and its small spring flowers feed bees for weeks. Cross-dated trees in New England have exceeded 600 years. Slow to start, worth the wait. As a street tree it stands the wet, compacted clay found in many cities, even in a sidewalk tree pit. Perfect as the one shade tree on a lawn, chosen for fall color over fast growth.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Patience is the first thing to expect from black gum. A young tree stands 12 to 15 feet after about ten years, and our growth estimator models it at about a foot a year in youth. Forest trees reach 40 to 70 feet with a trunk 1 to 2 feet through and a crown 20 to 35 feet wide. Trees can live more than 600 years, and one in New Hampshire was dated to 679.

No bearing age is on record, but heavy seed comes once the trunk is about 8 inches through, and the tupelos fruit abundantly every year. Small greenish flowers open in May and June and feed bees well. The blue-black fruit, three eighths to half an inch long and quite sour, ripens in September and October. Migrating thrushes, wild turkeys, black bears and foxes eat it.

It grows wild from Maine and southern Ontario west to Michigan and Missouri and south to eastern Texas and Florida, in wet bottoms and on dry rocky slopes alike. The long taproot rules out moving an older tree.

## How to grow Black Gum

Black gum takes full sun or part shade on almost any ground: wet bottomland, dry ridges, heavy clay. It prefers acid soil and turns yellow on limestone. At full size it should stand 20 feet from a house and clear of overhead wires. Set trees 20 feet apart.

Tupelo grows a taproot and resents being moved, so plant it small and in spring. Bare-root saplings go into a hole twice the width of the roots and deep enough for the taproot, root flare at grade, backfilled with the same soil. Mulch a wide ring three inches deep, kept off the trunk. Sow seed in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth; it germinates the next spring.

Black gum is slow to establish, so water deeply once a week through the first summer and during dry spells for two more. Deer browse the tips, so use a tube or cage for three or four years. There is no need to prune it.

Most trees are male or female, so only some seedlings will fruit. Color begins in early September, well before the maples.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: black tupelo](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/black-tupelo)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Nyssa sylvatica](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/nyssa-sylvatica/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Nyssa sylvatica](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a670)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Nyssa chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Nyssa.pdf)
- [Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages (Pederson), Virginia Tech Dendrology: Nyssa sylvatica](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Nyssa&species=sylvatica)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Nyssa sylvatica, N. biflora](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/nysspp/all.html)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: blackgum, Nyssa sylvatica](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_nysy.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Nyssa sylvatica](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NYSY)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 12: Nyssa sylvatica](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416878)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Nyssa sylvatica](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/nyssa/nyssa-sylvatica/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: tupelo](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/tupelo/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Nyssa sylvatica](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/NYSY)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: blackgum, Nyssa sylvatica](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_nysy.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for the Southeast: the Carolinas, Georgia, north Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-the-southeast/index.html.md)
- [What each tree and shrub we grow is also called: other names, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/other-names/index.html.md)
- [Six trees not to plant near a house, and what to plant instead](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other tupelos (Nyssa) we grow: [Dwarf Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-tupelo/index.html.md), [Ogeechee Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ogeechee-tupelo/index.html.md), [Swamp Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-tupelo/index.html.md), [Water Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/water-tupelo/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Dangleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dangleberry/index.html.md), [Sheep Laurel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sheep-laurel/index.html.md) and [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Black Gum (Tupelo), add ?species=black-gum with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=black-gum&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Black Gum (Tupelo)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=black-gum): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=black-gum): whether Black Gum (Tupelo) can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Black Gum (Tupelo) as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=black-gum (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Black Gum (Tupelo) is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=black-gum (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Black Gum (Tupelo) needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 5 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=black-gum:5
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Black Gum (Tupelo) where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=black-gum&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Black Gum (Tupelo) goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=black-gum&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Black Gum (Tupelo) flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=black-gum