Black Gum: Why it's Popular & the Various Names

Lou Meyer from Davey's mid-Atlantic region talks all things black gum trees, including the different names the tree goes by and the numerous benefits the species provides to a homeowner's landscape.

In this episode we cover:  

• Black gum vs Sweetgum trees (1:03) 
• Why do people love black gums? (2:45) (10:30)
• Black gum's seasonal colors (3:49)
• Are black gums historically underused in landscapes? (6:03)
• Ways to protect smaller black gum trees (8:56) (10:10)
• Black gum's name origin (11:56)
• Why should you plant a black gum tree? (19:08)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn about black gum pests, read our blog, Tree Pest (Insect): Black Twig Borer.

Check out our recent tree-specific episodes here, Black Walnut: Is it True You Can't Grow Underneath Them? and Blue Spruce: Why it's Struggling & How to Help.

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Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.

He's back, our most popular guest, Lou Meyer, in our series of podcasts about different species. Lou is a regional business developer for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Davey Tree Expert Company based in Baltimore. Lou, this tree is one that gets mentioned a lot when I interview arborists, the black gum. Every arborist I think loves the black gum.

Lou Meyer: It is definitely an under-appreciated and well-loved tree by folks in the know. The black gum is just a gorgeous species. I love talking about it. I'm thrilled to be here with you, Doug.

Doug: It's not a sweet gum. It's a black gum. It's a black tupelo. What else?

Lou: Black tupelo. Tupelo, sour gum. It goes by the name of cotton gum, pepperidge if you're in the northeast. If you're specifically on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, it is known as a beetlebung. It's also known as a stinkwood, a wild pear tree, and many other local variations. It's a widespread tree throughout the eastern North America.

If you think of Maine to Florida, out to Texas, up to Missouri, parts of Michigan. A well-known tree in eastern North America. Yes, very important to note that it is not a sweet gum. The sweet gum we know has those spiky balls that you step on, you roll your legs. Sweet gums are very, very important trees to the forest and to ecology. Not a great tree for your front yard.

The black gum does not have spiky balls. The black gum has no relation to the sweet gum. Yes, every time I suggest it as a tree to be planted in a front yard, people roll their eyes and say, "I don't want these spiky balls. No, no." Different tree.

Doug: I thought you were one of those sweet gum lovers. Are you one of those guys that loves sweet gums?

Lou: I adore them. The sweet gum and the black gum, since we're talking about it, both of them, I think, have the best fall color of any species out there. For me, they're tied as far as their value that way. The sweet gum I love because of the importance of those little spiky balls to wildlife. I can understand why people don't like them in their front yard.

Doug: Is that fall color for the black gum, is that the main thing that people love it for, or is there more?

Lou: There's more. For one thing, it's a good medium-sized tree. A lot of folks have properties that aren't sprawling. I live on about a half acre, so I have some space for large trees, but not a ton. This is a great medium-sized tree. It grows 40 to 70 feet tall at the most. There are a couple that get above that, but it's wild. Mainly in that 40 to 50-foot range.

They spread 20 to 30 feet, so they don't take up a whole lot of space. They're slow to a medium growth rate. They just go really slow. The other thing, too, is that they have very few pests or diseases that affect them. There are a couple, but in my 20 years in the industry, I can't think of treating a black gum ever other than for nutrient deficiency, fertilization. They're pretty bulletproof. We love them for that.

Doug: They are stunning in the fall. That fire engine red leaf, it stands out. Whenever I see one, there's no wondering what it is. Even from afar, it's like, "Wow, look at that thing." When you get one that's mature and it changes color, there's nothing like it.

Lou: They're spectacular in the fall. Even their summer color, they've got these really dark, glossy green leaves that almost look-- To me, they look a lot like the southern magnolia, that are the semi-evergreen glossy thick leaves. They've got those deep dark green leaves with a pale underside, but I love that. Also, for landscape use, they're very popular because they can grow almost anywhere.

They tolerate super wet soils. They'll grow in swamps. They're called the water tupelo for a reason. They can grow in swamps. They also grow on hillsides, on dry hillsides. They're drought resistant. They're water tolerant. The only thing they don't like is alkaline soils, but pretty much anywhere else, they're great. They're good use of street trees for that reason. They're pretty indestructible.

I love to say that about trees [unintelligible 00:05:06] They're pretty indestructible. They also have really pretty bark, too. When we talk about trees, we've talked about four-season trees in the past. I don't know if I'd specifically put the black gum in a four-season. Definitely the older ones. The reason why is it has that winter interest. The older ones have this really furrowed, it looks like alligator skin bark. It's neat.

They do have flowers. You rarely see the flowers. They're tiny little greenish-yellow flowers that blend in with the canopy. They have fruit also that is a late fall, October fruit. Again, you rarely see that because it's a favorite of the birds and squirrels. This is another one when we talk about environmental impact, this is an important one for pollinators and for mammals in that way, and birds. We have a bunch.

Doug: Would you say it's an underused planting in landscapes?

Lou: Historically, it has been. Now, the past 10 years, I've seen more and more requests for the black gum. There are a couple of cultivars, wildfires, the biggest one, a couple of cultivars that have been marketed. We're seeing a lot more use of it. Historically, it's been a tough tree to transplant. It did not like transplanting. I think the new cultivars are better transplanted, so we see more of them.

Doug: What size do you want then if you're going to be planting one on your property? Do you want a smaller tree if they don't like to be transplanted? Do I have that right?

Lou: You are absolutely correct. There are considerations when you talk about size of tree you're planting. If you have, like you do, a heavy oak forest, I imagine you have one or two deer around your house at any given time, or an entire herd of them.

Doug: It's a Disney movie out there, Lou. I seriously have a 12-point buck running, and a bunch of does and fawns, and then there's Thumper and Chippendale. Everybody's out there in that forest.

Lou: That's pretty normal across a lot of our region. If you have that, a smaller tree, you're really going to have to protect from the wildlife. A smaller tree, upon planting, all things considered by itself, has a much more successful outlook at life. There's much more opportunity to succeed if you protect it from wildlife and make sure it grows up.

Whereas a two-inch or even bigger, six-inch tree, it's going to take a lot more input to keep those alive those first few years. The other thing to consider is that the smaller the tree at installation, the quicker it starts growing, the quicker it adapts to the site and starts growing. If you need an immediate screen, a bigger tree is the way to go. If you're in it for the long haul, if you say, "I'm going to be in this house for the next 20 to 30 years, and I don't need a screen at this very moment," planting smaller species will allow them to catch up.

If you think of a five-year cycle, you plant a two-foot-tall whip in the ground, it takes one season to adjust, and the next year it's putting on growth. Whereas you put a two-inch tree in the ground that's, let's say, eight feet tall, it might take two to three years to adjust and start growing. Over the course of those five years, your two-inch whip may be the same size, if not bigger, than that two-inch tree upon planting. There's a lot of considerations with it. For this one, because it doesn't transplant as well as other species, the smaller installation size is preferred.

Doug: Let's talk about how to protect that small tree, especially from the deer during the rut. What is your preferred way to keep that little whip safe when they're rubbing?

Lou: I like mechanical, so putting up a cage around the whip to keep the deer away. There are lots of other options. There's the homeowner special of spraying hot sauce, [unintelligible 00:09:19] spray, or coyote urine, all those things. At Davey, we have products that we apply to landscapes to specifically protect those landscapes from deer damage.

A lot of those products have secondary benefits of acting like anti-desiccant oils that help protect trees from losing their water during the winter. Those sprays are very effective and long-lasting. It really takes the onus off the homeowner every time it rains or snows, anytime it precipitates, of having to go out and reapply the hot sauce, the coyote urine, whatever weird gross stuff you're putting down.

Doug: Give me a physical barrier any day for a young tree and put it up for the rut and then take it down in the spring and you're going to have a safe tree. That's the way I prefer to do it.

Lou: You bet you. The important thing with that, of course, is paying attention as the tree grows to not be girdling the tree or restricting its growth. If you plant a two-foot tree with a cage around it, in three years, you better not be using the same cage.

Doug: All right, back to the black gum. Say that three times quick.

Lou: Important things to note. The tree we talked about the nectar of the tree and the importance of it to the pollinators. We talk about wood usage and plant usage. The black gum is the favorite among honey producers. If you have a forest of black gums, and you've got honey coming from nearby, you're going to get a real light-colored, mild-tasting honey that's just smooth as can be. It's huge for them.

Actually, a popular practice back in the day was when you would find a hollowed-out black gum. Whatever reason, they had a hollow in it, a woodpecker created a cavity and a screech owl moved in. Beekeepers would move their colonies into the black gum so that they had ready access to the flowers themselves. It's really important there. The wood use is not great. It's not a good tree for splitting.

It's got cross rays that make it really difficult to split. It's a good wood for veneer. It's a good wood for plywood. Southern tree in the swamps, they use it for wood pulp a lot for paper production, because of that toughness, it's used a lot for tool handles, gunstocks, things like that. Yes. Interesting thing about the name. We talked about how it's got so many regional names.

Again, black gum, black tupelo, sour gum, cotton gum, pepperidge, beetlebung, stinkwood. They all fall under the scientific name of Nyssa sylvatica. Now, Nyssa was a Greek water nymph. That pays homage to the fact that this tree can grow in swamps. Sylvatica is Latin for of the woods. The Nyssa sylvatica is a Greek water nymph of the woods. Now, I love the name Nyssa. When we had our daughter Maggie, who's five now, Nyssa was one of my top faves for a middle name. I think it's just such a beautiful name, N-Y-S-S-A.

Then actually, this is interesting, the popular name, Tupelo, people always ask where that comes from. That actually is a Native American origin. It comes from the Creek tribe's words of ito, which is tree, and opilwa, which is swamp. If you say it quick together, ito opilwa, and then topilwa, Tupelo, you get to that. Tree and swamp. Now, the important part, why I really want to touch on Nyssa sylvatica is this is a great tree to explain why we use scientific names.

Again, it's got 12 different common names that I just listed off. If I'm in Maryland, where I live, and I refer to this as a black gum, and I'm talking to someone from Martha's Vineyard, and they say, "No, that's a beetle bung." Then someone from North Carolina says, "No, that's a Tupelo." Someone from Mississippi says, "No, that's a sour gum." We're all talking about the same tree. Common names are common to where you are standing. We use, in the industry and in many industries, binomial nomenclature.

It's commonly known as Latin names or scientific names. It's a system of taxonomy that was standardized by Carl Linnaeus, who was a Swedish botanist back in the, oh, I don't know, the 1700s, I believe. For trees especially, trees and plants, you've got that two-part name. The first part is the genus. For this, the genus is Nyssa. The second part is the specific name that distinguishes the species within the genus. Nyssa sylvatica. We've done other episodes on species that have a lot of different species within a genus.

Think about oaks, the Quercus or Quercus. Every oak begins with Quercus, but then it's broken down into the species. A white oak is Quercus alba. A black oak is Quercus velutina. That second word distinguishes the species within. This is used in all of science. Humans, we are homo sapiens. We're the homogenous, the sapien species. What's fun is some binomials have entered common use.

If you think of a boa constrictor, boa is the genus, constrictor is the species. We all know boa constrictors as boa constrictors, tyrannosaurus rex is the same. Aloe vera. We talk about aloe vera like it's a thing, but that's really the name of it. Sometimes the binomial nomenclature is descriptive. For instance, rhododendron comes from the Greek rodon, which is rose, and dendron, which is tree. It very specifically describes a rose on a tree, a rhododendron.

Some are chosen because of their places. Ulmus americana is the American elm. Only found in America, so that americana specifies that it is an elm that is found here. Then sometimes we find binomial nomenclature in the plant world being named after individuals. I'll refer back to my cousin, Eric Tepe. You interviewed Emily Tepe, Eric's sister, once upon a time for a podcast on Edible Landscapes. Eric Tepe, Emily's brother, is a botanist at the University of Cincinnati.

He specializes in potatoes and peppers. Cousin Eric got to name the Solanum baretiae. I hope I'm saying that right, Eric, which is a type of pepper. It was named after Jeanne Baret, who is a French pioneering yet mostly unheralded French botanist. Jeanne Baret, she was the first female to circumnavigate the globe as a botanist on a boat. In homage to her, Eric named this pepper after her.

Sometimes those binomial nomenclatures can be references or homages to individuals who've contributed to science. It's really important because, again, we're going back to the black gum. Where I call it black gum, another person calls a water tupelo, another person calls a sourwood, we all refer to it as a Nyssa sylvatica, and we know what we are talking about. If I place an order for a Nyssa sylvatica from a Texas nursery, they know what I am ordering instead of just saying a black gum where the person might be scratching their head.

Doug: Yes, because there can often be two of the same common names for plants. We see that all the time. "Oh. What do I do about my snowball bush? What do I do about this or that?" Without that binomial nomenclature, there's no way to actually identify it.

Now, do you find yourself having to use it with clients very often or not? Because when I'm talking about, let's say, hydrangeas, I warn them. I say, "We have to go Latin so that I can explain to you these different types of hydrangeas and how they put on their buds because it's going to depend on how you prune it and how you get flowers."

Lou: I don't have to so much with trees, but we certainly use it a lot in the industry to geek out with one another. When you get together a group of arborists and we're walking around the forest, we're shouting out Latin names to show off like peacocks putting our feathers up because it's fun. We all went through dendrology classes or we learned our own.

Doug: It'd be like the striped maple. There's a native striped maple and there's a Asian striped maple. What is it? I looked it up while you were talking, Acer pensylvanicum. Is that right? Did I say it right?

Lou: I think so, yes.

Doug: That's one that where if you had two trees, the striped maples, they look similar, but they're completely different trees. If you wanted the native, you'd have to have the Latin name. Finish us off with black gum. Tell us why we should plant one.

Lou: Wrapping it all together, I think you should plant black gums for a few different reasons. One, they're very important for your native wildlife in the eastern United States. If you're a fan of birds, they'll bring birds to your yard. If you're a fan of pollinators, they'll bring pollinators to your yard. They have terrific fall color and summer color. Terrific summer green, wonderful fall reds. I hate to use the word bulletproof, but they're very bulletproof. There's not a lot of problems with them. Slow-growing, they just take some care along the way, but they're fantastic trees.

Doug: It's one that's on my list. As I lose my oaks, one or two a year, I'm putting in other trees and I've got a spot marked for my black gum. As always, thanks so much for the information. I loved that binomial nomenclature talk we had. I could go all day on that one. Lou, thanks as always.

Lou: Doug, it's my pleasure. Have a wonderful day and week ahead.

Doug: That was a lot of fun. Great information from Lou as always. Now, tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster. Do me a big favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode, maybe a comment, there's a couple different ways to reach us.

Send an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast. We'd love to hear from you. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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