SOUR GUM
Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.
Other Name: Black Gum.
Growth Form: Medium to large tree to 75 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown rounded, often with many small, drooping branchlets.
Bark: Brown to black, often broken up into squarish blocks.
Twigs: Rather stout, reddish-brown, smooth, sometimes zigzag; leaf scars alternate, crescent-shaped, with 3 bundle traces. The pith is continuous but marked with distinct partitions.
Buds: Short-pointed, yellowish or reddish, smooth, about ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades abruptly pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the base, up to 6 inches long and usually about half as wide, smooth or with a few coarse teeth along the edges, dark green, shiny, and usually smooth on the upper surface, paler and usually somewhat hairy on the lower surface; leafstalks up to 1½ inches long, smooth or sparsely hairy. The leaves turn scarlet in the autumn.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne on separate trees, appearing after the leaves begin to unfold, greenish, very small, the staminate several in spherical clusters, the pistillate 2-several on long stalks arising from the leaf axils.
Fruit: Fleshy, oval, dark blue, up to ⅔ inch long, bitter, 1-seeded, ripening in October.
Wood: Heavy, strong, soft, not durable, pale yellow.