Latin Name: Nyssa sylvatica
Also known as Sour Gum or Black Tupelo


Black Gum is a tree with corky, dark, deeply grooved and checkered bark. The leaves are egg shaped to elliptic and turn scarlet in autumn. The wood is heavy, moderately strong, light in color, and has been used in furniture cooperage, boxes, and woodturnings. It grows primarily in swamps and wetlands from Maine to Florida, west to eastern Texas and at the edge of a vernal pool not far from my home in southern New Hampshire.
Working mostly with hardwood found tree parts, I prefer Black Gum saplings and branches for their sinuous shapes, the absence of checking and splitting while drying, and the smooth closed grain allowing for a beautiful finish. Some of the oldest trees around are Black Gum, fortunately protected by the laws that protect the wetlands in which they grow.

Jon Brooks