Bark dark gray, usually smooth, thin, in shady areas often encrusted with mosses, liverworts, and lichens. Branches stout, spreading to ascending. Twigs about 5 to 7 mm in diameter, encircled by stipule scars, green. Buds (terminal), silvery gray, pubescent, 15 mm long; smaller lateral buds often subtended by persistent petiole base. Leaves alternate, evergreen in South, deciduous in northern part of range, simple; elliptic to oblong, 10 to 15 cm long, 4 to 6 cm wide; margin entire, dark green above, silvery pubescent below. Flowers perfect, white, sweet-scented, 5 to 8 cm in diameter, appearing May to September. Fruit an aggregate of follicles which open and shed red seeds, irregular in shape, ovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, about 5 cm long. [Illustration: Sweetbay/_Magnolia virginiana_] Sweetgum; redgum _Liquidambar styraciflua_ L. [Illustration: silhouette] Bark dark gray, divided by deep furrows into narrow, rounded ridges. Branches stout, often with corky wings or outgrowths. Twigs about 4 to 6 mm in diameter, gray-brown. Buds (terminal) broadly egg-shaped, about 10 to 15 mm long, scales overlapping, slightly sticky. Leaves alternate, deciduous, simple; palmately 5- to 7-lobed; 8 to 20 cm wide, 6 to 15 cm long, often longer than broad; margin finely serrate; petioles 4 to 13 cm long. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious), appearing as the leaves unfold; staminate clustered in terminal racemes; pistillate in small drooping spherical heads. Fruit in stalked spherical heads covered with small spine-like projections; seed cavity at base of each spine. [Illustration: Sweetgum; redgum/_Liquidambar styraciflua_] Red Maple _Acer rubrum_ L. [Illustration: silhouette] Bark gray, divided into scaly ridges by narrow furrows. Branches slender, spreading and ascending. Twigs about 3 mm in diameter, reddish. Buds spherical, reddish, clustered at apex of twig, scales with white ciliate margins. Leaves opposite, deciduous, simple; ovate to almost circular, 4 to 9 cm long, 2.5 to 7 cm wide, usually longer than broad; 3-lobed near the apex, margin finely serrate; dark green above, glaucous and lightly pubescent below, pubescence usually shed. Flowers typically polygamous, occasionally with perfect flowers, small, forming dense clusters from separate buds before leaf expansion, conspicuous because of the red to orange coloration. Fruit twin samaras 10 to 20 mm long. Var. _drummondii_: Leaves larger than typical red maple, usually broader than long; 3 to 5 lobes or occasionally scarcely lobed, margins coarsely toothed, conspicuously glaucous below, usually permanently tomentose. Fruit samaras 4 to 5 cm long. [Illustration: Red Maple/_Acer rubrum_] Black Tupelo; blackgum _Nyssa sylvatica_ Marsh. [Illustration: silhouette]