''Nyssa aquatica'', commonly called the water tupelo, cottongum, wild olive, large tupelo, tupelo-gum, or water-gum, is a large, long-lived tree in the tupelo genus ''(Nyssa)'' that grows in

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the south ...

. ''Nyssa aquatica''

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

s have a swollen base that tapers up to a long, clear bole, and its root system is periodically under water. Water tupelo trees often occurs in pure stands.

Names

''Nyssa aquaticas

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

name ''(Nyssa)'' refers to a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

water nymph In Greek mythology, the naiads (; grc-gre, ναϊάδες, naïádes) are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who ...

; the species

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

''aquatica'', meaning ‘aquatic’, refers to its swamp and wetland habitat. One of the species' common names, tupelo, is of Native American origin, coming from the Creek words ''ito'' ‘tree’ and ''opilwa'' ‘swamp’; it was in use by the mid-18th century

Uses

A large mature tree can produce commercial timber used for furniture and crates. The swollen base of the ''Nyssa aquatica'' is the source of a favored wood of wood carvers. Many kinds of wildlife eat the fruit, and it is a favored

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

tree.

Gallery

File:American bee journal (1918) (17493630783).jpg, Branch with inflorescences File:Nyssa aquatica seeds, by Omar Hoftun.jpg, Seeds

References

External links

Louisiana State University: page on ''Nyssa aquatica'' in America
*bioimages.vanderbilt.edu - ''Nyssa aquatica'' images
woodworkingnetwork.com: "All About Tupelo Wood"
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7071273 aquatica Freshwater plants Trees of the Southeastern United States Trees of mild maritime climate Trees of the United States Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus