Black Gum - Nyssa sylvatica

Cornaceae - Dogwood Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 22
Black Gum
Nyssa sylvatica

Spring

Black Gum leaves and flowers in May at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.

The vibrant green leaves of the Black Gum tree stand out in the forest in the spring time.  The small flower clusters are still on the tree in May.  This Black Gum tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.
http://www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/

Summer 

The Black Gum Tree in the Summer

The Black Gum Tree in the Summer

Dark spots often decorate the Black Gum leaves.

The beautiful Black Gum tree stands with its branches straight out from it's trunk.  It paints it's leaves with dots of color and then changes to brilliant orange and red.  It is said that migratory birds feast on the fruit of the Black Gum, for they see the color from high in the sky.  The fruit is one of the first fall tree fruits to ripen.

Fall

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica

Winter

The Black Gum Tree Bud

The Black Gum Bark

This beautiful tree has bark that looks like little rectangular blocks seperated by deep crevices. This Black Gum tree is the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina.

Another good way to ID a Black Gum tree is by the horizontal arrangement of the branches to the trunk.

Do you know how to imitate a Black Gum tree?

For the love of the trees,
Becky

Always appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."
Ralph Waldo Emerson