Hi tree folks!
I'd love to hear your experiences with Nyssa sylvatica (black gum, tupelo). A few questions I have are below, but I'd welcome any comments you have about the tree and particularly it's use in a home landscape. I know it is a good honeybee tree and birds like the fruit. And I know it prefers moist, acid soils. I like the shiny leaves and fall color and the wavy branches.

1. Do squirrels feed on the fruit?
2. Is it possible to identify male vs female trees at a young age (i.e. how soon do the trees bear fruit?)
3. I've read the fruit is "messy." What is your experience?
4. Have you noticed much feeding by Japanese beetles?
5. What cultivars do you have and are they fruitless? Other observations or problems?

Thank you! Looking forward to your comments!

Nyssa sylvatica - Blackgum - is a great tree just about anywhere it is grown. While it is native on moist to wet (to swampy) acid soils, it certainly doesn't require them.

I have had the good fortune to work for the Louisville (KY) parks department for a couple decades, and have designed with this and many other native trees around our community. We have established a grove of named selections and species at Seneca Golf Course, now numbering about 27 taxa. These are on well-drained karst limestone-based soils on high ground - a far cry from moist acid conditions - and they are perfectly happy except when mowers or weedeaters hit them. These trees planted since 2014 join several older specimens that grace the rear of Hole #2's green. You can see these on aerial views.

To answer some of your questions...

1. As for squirrels' dietary preferences (referencing Gary Hightshoe's fine 1988 text Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Urban and Rural America), Blackgum provides intermediate wildlife value to songbirds and small mammals. Personal observation is that birds will take these fruits far sooner than any small mammals in central Kentucky. Squirrels are and prefer nuts, and any seed you put out for your bird feeders. Whole YouTube videos attest to this.

2. It is possible to identify male vs. female trees on the named selections at a small size, since the named selections are of known sex and will be flowering at about 2" caliper. I cannot speak for how soon a tree grown from seed will flower. As far as setting fruit: Nyssa sp. are mostly dioecious (like most Ilex sp. and several other common species of trees) which means male flowers and female flowers occur on separate trees. You will need to plant at least one male flowered (staminate) tree to provide pollen for any female flowered (pistillate) trees that you plant. Fortunately, among the great named selections there are both known male and female flowered plants.

3. I wonder who the heck wrote that the fruit is messy? That's like saying the sky is too blue for my preference, or chocolate tastes too good. The fruit is small (3/8 - 1/2" long; 0.95 - 1.27 cm), and I'd much rather have this species' fruit around my patio than Mulberry or Pokeweed.

4. I have never seen Japanese Beetle feeding on this tree, but JBs can land somewhere and attract others by pheromone signals - and then there is no accounting for any subsequent frenzy. They would probably defoliate fenceposts and telephone poles when they got all hopped up on reproductive urges.

5. "Fruitless" will mean a selection that has primarily staminate (male) flowers, or a female plant that hasn't flowered (yet) or has no pollen nearby to fertilize the flowers.

You (and others here) should plant this species, and then get out of the way and let it shine.

Here is a link to all the Nyssa entries in NGA's Plants Database. I have grown almost all the Nyssa sylvatica selections listed, as well as quite a few others not yet posted there.

https://garden.org/plants/brow...

Beautiful tree!

That one is in Lexington Cemetery - also home to fine Kentucky karst limestone-based soils.

Of course, it has regular soil aeration and long term nutritional supplementation in the vicinity...

Thank you, John, for all of the information (and the chuckles! ). I appreciate the time you put into answering my questions so thoroughly! Tupelo is at the top of my list to plant, and I'm learning that more cultivars are being developed. Seems like a great autumn-color alternate to the maples, which are so overplanted.

The fruit concern is for my neighbor, whose driveway is close to the intended location of the tree. It seems some cultivars don't mention male vs female. Northern Splendor is one of interest, but I haven't been able to find this info for this cultivar.

Funny you should mention that clone. I just spent most of yesterday afternoon perambulating the Nyssa grove mentioned above to update the accession spreadsheet and note changes in health and quality - as well as additions since the last pre-COVID review.

'Northern Splendor' was just one of at least 8 new accessions since 2016. I am still reconciling my field notes with the database, so I don't want to jump the gun with any flighty statements just yet.

You will want cold tolerance, and that much I do know about 'Northern Splendor'. There could be others to consider.

Agree! I'm zone 5b, which has an average minimum temp of -10 to -15 F, but last winter we hit -30. Northern Splendor is rated for zone 4, so might be able to handle that deep cold better.

Also this cultivar is supposed to have a good fiery red fall color and apparently goes dormant earlier---so I hope to be able to enjoy the fall color without a sudden early deep fall freeze knocking off green leaves and causing branch dieback (which seems to occur commonly around here). Northern Splendor has somewhat upright branching, too, which is a positive for me.