In mid-summer each plant bears one immense panicle of small, white FLOWERS, which rises well above the leaves. The tree presents its most striking appearance in autumn when the small black FRUIT ripens, for the fruit-stems turn a rich wine-red. Birds eat the juicy drupes. The WOOD is of no commercial importance. BLACK TUPELO (Blackgum) Nyssa sylvatica Marsh. Black gum, often called sour gum, is found in eastern Texas to the valley of the Brazos River; usually in swampy wet soil, but sometimes on dry slopes with the oaks. The BARK on younger trees is furrowed between flat ridges, and gradually develops into quadrangular blocks that are dense, hard, and nearly black. [Illustration: BLACK TUPELO (Twig, leaf, and fruit one-half natural size)] The LEAVES are simple, 2 to 3 inches long, entire, obovate to elliptic, shiny, and dark green in color. In the fall the leaves turn brilliant red. The greenish FLOWERS on long, slender peduncles 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 or several-flowered clusters on different trees. The FRUIT is drupe-like, dark blue ⅔ inch long, containing a single hard-shelled stone, and is borne 2 to 3 in a cluster on 1 to 2½-inch peduncles. The WOOD is very tough, cross-grained, not durable in contact with the soil, hard to work, and warps easily. Once considered a weed tree, the species is now valuable for basket veneer, box boards, and paper pulp. In the old days, the hollow trunks were used for “bee-gums.” Swamp tupelo (N. s. var. biflora [Walt.] Sarg.), found mainly on the Coastal Plain, has narrowly obovate to narrowly oblanceolate leaves and fruiting peduncles ⅜ to 1⅜ inches long. The base of the trunk is swollen when submerged. WATER TUPELO (Cotton-Gum or Tupelo-Gum) Nyssa aquatica L. Water tupelo is found only in deep river swamps or coastal swamps which are often flooded. The commonly enlarged base, large-sized fruit, hanging on a long peduncle (stem), and the brittleness of the twigs, serve to distinguish this species from the black gum. It forms a tall, often slowly tapering somewhat crooked trunk 50 to 75 feet in height and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The spreading small branches form a narrow, oblong or pyramidal head. The branches are generally smooth and light brown in color. The BARK of the trunk is thin, dark brown and furrowed up and down the trunk. [Illustration: WATER TUPELO (Leaf and fruit, one-third natural size; twig, two-thirds natural size)]