# Ogeechee Tupelo (Nyssa ogeche)

> The tree behind tupelo honey, with tart red fruit known as Ogeechee lime on the females, for ground that floods or stays wet.

Also called Ogeechee lime, white tupelo, bee-tupelo, sour tupelo-gum. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ogeechee-tupelo/

![Ogeechee tupelo (Nyssa ogeche) with crooked trunks and a swollen, buttressed base at a river's edge](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/ogeechee-tupelo-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Mike Tilley, CC BY 3.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOgeechee_Tupelo_at_Roline_-_panoramio.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 25 to 45 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Honey tree, Tolerates wet soil, Edible, Wildlife value, Fall color
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Ogeechee tupelo is a small, crooked tree of the river swamps of the coastal plain, often with several trunks and a swollen base. Bees make tupelo honey from its nectar, and beekeepers have planted thousands of acres of it along the lower Apalachicola River. The fruit, called Ogeechee lime, has a sour flesh that goes into preserves and drinks. Silvics of North America calls the tree scarce, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in South Carolina. Plant it at a pond edge, in a rain garden or along a ditch that stands full after storms.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Ogeechee tupelo grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Seedlings planted on a Florida lake shore grew almost 8 feet in three years and bore a good crop that year. Wild trees stand 25 to 35 feet, and garden trees reach 35 to 45 feet with a crown 25 to 35 feet wide.

The small greenish flowers open from late March into May, and the males in particular pour out nectar for the bees. The red fruit, an inch to an inch and a half long and the largest of any tupelo, ripens in July and August and hangs on into December. Birds eat it.

It grows wild only on the coastal plain, from the South Carolina coast to north and west Florida and south Alabama. It is most common along the Ogeechee, Altamaha and Suwannee Rivers. It grows on ground that floods for long spells, seldom more than 2 feet above the river.

## How to grow Ogeechee Tupelo

Ogeechee tupelo wants full sun and a wet, acid soil, and it grows in standing water as long as the water moves a little. It will take part shade or a somewhat drier spot, but it needs shelter from harsh wind. Plant it 20 feet from a wall and clear of overhead wires, and set trees 25 feet apart.

Saplings ship potted. The long taproot makes an older tree hard to move, so plant it young and leave it in place. Plant in the dormant season, in a hole wider than the pot and deep enough for the taproot. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch a wide ring clear of the trunk. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, an inch deep. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 30 to 120 days first. Keep the seedbed wet, since seedlings die where the surface dries.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Keep a wide circle clear of grass, since a seedling in dense sod grows very slowly. Deer browse young tupelos, so guard the stem for the first few years. It needs little pruning.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear the red fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Female trees begin to bear at about five years. Fallen fruit is messy on paving, so keep female trees away from walks and drives. The leaves turn yellow to deep purple in fall. Tupelo leaf miner, scale, rust and leaf spot turn up at times, but none is serious.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Ogeechee tupelo, Kossuth and Scheer 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/ogeechee-tupelo)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Nyssa chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Nyssa.pdf)
- [University of Florida IFAS Extension, ENH-579: Nyssa ogeche, Ogeechee Tupelo (Gilman and Watson, 1993, reviewed 2003)](https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/download/142237/147538/295247)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Nyssa ogeche](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/nyssa-ogeche/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Nyssa ogeche](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NYOG)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: Ogeechee tupelo](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=889)
- [UF/IFAS Extension Gulf County: Tupelo Honey, Rich in Local History and Medicinal Value, 2016-05-13](https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/gulfco/2016/05/13/tupelo-honey-rich-in-local-history-and-medicinal-value/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Nyssa ogeche](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.141289/Nyssa_ogeche)

## 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)
- [Why native trees become rare, and ten rare eastern species worth growing](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/why-native-trees-become-rare/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Ogeechee Tupelo, add ?species=ogeechee-tupelo with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=ogeechee-tupelo&zone=6&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Ogeechee Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=ogeechee-tupelo): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=ogeechee-tupelo
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Ogeechee Tupelo is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=ogeechee-tupelo
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Ogeechee Tupelo needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=ogeechee-tupelo:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Ogeechee Tupelo flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.