Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Common forest trees of North Carolina

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  • . .$gp<^-<s -e> -$%&<z&* 1ST TREE: 5 •€> f£gp«?§>.-<£ -& <£§3—e -e> -#^<ki^.- BLACK GUM (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.) THE black gum, often called sour gum, has been considered a wreed in the forest. Weed-like, it finds footing in many types of soil and conditions of soil moisture throughout the State. In the lowlands it is occasionally found in year-round swamps with cypress, and in the hills and mountains on dry slopes with oaks and hickories. The leaves are simple, 2 to 3 inches long, entire, often broader near the apex, shiny, and dark green in color. In the fall the leaves turn a most brilliant red. The bark on y ounger trees is furrowed .between flat ridges, and gradually develops into quadrangular blocks that are dense, hard and nearly black. The greenish flowers on long slender stems appear in early spring when the leaves are about one-third grown. They are usually of two kinds, the male in many-flowered heads and the female in two to several-flowered clusters on different trees. The fruit is a dark blue, fleshy berry, two-thirds of an inch long, containing a single hard-shelled seed, and is borne on long stems, 2 to 3 in a cluster. The wood is very tough, cross-grained, not durable in contact with the soil, hard to work, and warps easily. It is used for crate and basket veneers, box shooks, rollers, mallets, rough floors, mine trams, pulpwood, and fuel. In the old days, the hollow trunks were used for "bee gums." BLACK GUM One-half natural size. 71
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