2. [Nyssa biflora] Walt.
Leaves oblanceolate, oblong, elliptic or rarely ovate, acute or acuminate or occasionally rounded at the narrow apex, cuneate or rounded at the gradually narrowed base, and entire, when they unfold silky-villose above and hoary-tomentose beneath, soon becoming glabrous, dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and sometimes glaucous on the lower surface, 2′—4′ long and ¾′—1′ wide, with a prominent midrib and numerous slender veins; petioles stout, ¼′—½′ in length. Flowers appearing when the leaves are nearly fully grown; staminate on slender villose pedicels, in many-flowered loose clusters on slender hairy peduncles 1′—1½′ in length; pistillate in pairs on rather stouter peduncles usually about 1′ long; calyx of the staminate flower disciform; petals oblong-ovate, rounded at apex, white, erect or slightly spreading, early deciduous. Fruit solitary or in pairs, on peduncles 1′—1½′ in length, oval or ellipsoid, dark blue, lustrous, about ⅓′ long, with acrid pulp; stone oval, compressed, narrowed at the ends, and prominently ribbed.
A tree, rarely more than 30° high, with a slender trunk gradually tapering upward from a swollen and much enlarged base, small spreading branches forming a narrow pyramidal or round-topped head, branchlets slightly villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, bright reddish brown in their first winter, becoming darker the following year, and numerous erect thick roots rising above the surface of the water. Winter-buds acute, dark red-brown, puberulous, and about ⅛′ long, the inner scales hoary-tomentose. Bark about 1′ thick, deeply furrowed, gray to very dark reddish brown.
Distribution. Small Pine-barren ponds of the coastal plain from North Carolina to central and eastern Florida, southern Alabama and Mississippi, and western Louisiana (near Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish).
3. [Nyssa ogeche] Marsh. Ogeechee Lime. Sour Tupelo.
Leaves oblong, oval or obovate, acute, rounded or rarely obtuse, and apiculate at apex, gradually or abruptly cuneate or sometimes rounded at base, and entire, covered on the lower surface when they unfold with thick hoary tomentum and on the upper surface with short scattered pale hairs, and at maturity thick and firm, dark green, lustrous and slightly pilose above, pale below, 4′—6′ long and 2′—2½′ wide, with a stout midrib, 9 or 10 pairs of primary veins covered on the lower side with rufous pubescence or often nearly glabrous, and obscure reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, grooved, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers appearing in March and April; staminate in capitate clusters on slender hairy peduncles ½′ long, bibracteolate near the middle, and developed from the axils of the inner scales of the terminal bud, covered with long pale hairs on the outer surface of the short obscurely 5-toothed cup-shaped calyx and on the oblong petals rounded at apex; filaments longer than the petals; anthers oval and conspicuously tuberculate-roughened; pistillate solitary, 1/16′ long, on short stout woolly peduncles from the axils of bud-scales, and furnished at apex with 2 acute hairy bractlets; calyx coated, like the minute rounded spreading petals, with hoary tomentum; stamens included, with short filaments, and small mostly fertile anthers; style stout, exserted, reflexed from near the base. Fruit bright or dull red, on slender tomentose stems enlarged at apex and ½′—⅔′ long, ripening in July and August, and sometimes persistent on the branches until after the falling of the leaves, oblong or obovoid, 1′—1½′ in length, tipped with the thickened and pointed remnants of the style; flesh thick, juicy, very acid; stone oblong, compressed, narrowed at the ends, rounded at base, acute at apex, with walls produced into 10 or 12 broad thin papery white wings, about 1′ long, and 1 or rarely 2-seeded.
A tree, rarely 60°—70° high, with 1 or several stems occasionally 2° in diameter, spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender branchlets coated when they first appear with rufous tomentum, light reddish brown or green tinged with red and puberulous during their first summer, turning gray or reddish brown in their first winter, and marked by large lunate or nearly triangular leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 groups of fibro-vascular bundles; often a shrub, with numerous slender clustered diverging stems. Winter-buds obtuse, ⅛′ long, with ovate apiculate imbricated scales rounded on the back and clothed with thick hoary tomentum, those of the inner ranks becoming at maturity ovate-oblong or obovate, rounded at apex, bright red, and ½′—¾′ long. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, irregularly fissured, with a dark brown surface broken into thick appressed persistent plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, tough, not strong, white, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood of about 10 layers of annual growth. A preserve with an agreeable subacid flavor, known as Ogeechee limes, is sometimes made from the fruit in Georgia and South Carolina. The flowers abound in nectar, and are much visited by bees.
Distribution. Deep often inundated river swamps or their borders; South Carolina in the neighborhood of the coast, through the valley of the lower Ogeechee River, Georgia; in northern and in western Florida to the mouth of the Choctawhatchee River (R. H. Harper), and in the valley of the lower Apalachicola River; rare and local.