TUPELO, PEPPERIDGE; SOUR OR BLACK GUM (Nyssa syl atica, Marsh). 50 to 100 feet. Medium-sized tree, of ir regular, variable shape; limbs short, tortuous, rigid, densely twiggy. Bark rough, dark gray, broken into many-sided plates; twigs green to orange, often downy. Wood heavy, tough, cross-grained, hard to work, used for mauls, pulleys, hubs, and woodenware. Leaves entire, oval, leathery, dark, green, shining above, often fuzzy beneath, 2 to 4 inches long, turning to scarlet. Flowers in May, yellow-green, small, in
conspicuous, in axillary clusters. Fruit drupes, blue-black, sour, ovoid, 3 inch long, 1 to 3 on stalk. Dist.: Maine to Florida; west to Michigan, Missouri, and Texas. Swamps and river banks