Tupelo , genus ''Nyssa'' , is a small genus of deciduous trees with alternate, simple leaves. It is sometimes included in the subfamily Nyssoideae of the dogwood family, Cornaceae, but is placed by other authorities in the family Nyssaceae. In the APG IV system, it is placed in Nyssaceae. Most ''Nyssa'' species are highly tolerant of wet soils and flooding, and some need such environments as habitat. Some of the species are

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, from southeastern Canada through the Eastern United States to Mexico and Central America. Other species are found in eastern and southeastern Asia, from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

south through Indochina to Java and southwest to the Himalayas.

Names

The genus name ''Nyssa'' refers to a Greek

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 name tupelo, the common name used for ''Nyssa'', is of Native American origin, coming from the

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

words ''ito'' 'tree' and ''opilwa'' 'swamp'; it was in use by the mid-18th century. This tree should not be confused with the tulip poplar, '' Liriodendron sp''. The city of

Tupelo, Mississippi Tupelo () is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,300, Tupelo is the sixth-largest city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and cultural hub of North M ...

, is named for this tree.

Species

Between seven and ten living species of ''Nyssa'' are recognized: * ''

Nyssa aquatica ''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 swamps and floodplains in the Southeastern United Stat ...

'' L. – Water tupelo (southeastern United States) * '' Nyssa biflora'' Walter (or ''Nyssa sylvatica'' var. ''biflora'') – Swamp tupelo, or swamp black-gum * ''

Nyssa javanica ''Nyssa javanica'' is a species of flowering plant in the tupelo family Nyssaceae. It is native to the eastern Himalayas, southern China, Southeast Asia, and western Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and th ...

'' (Blume) Wangerin - Eastern Himalayas, Indochina, Borneo, Java, Sumatra * ''

Nyssa ogeche ''Nyssa ogeche'', commonly referred to as Ogeechee tupelo, white tupelo, river lime, ogeechee lime tree, sour gum or wild lime is a deciduous tree. Growing to 15 m (~50 ft), it is in flower from March to May, and the seeds ripen from August to O ...

'' W.Bartram ex Marshall – Ogeechee tupelo (southeastern United States) * ''

Nyssa sinensis ''Nyssa sinensis'' (Chinese tupelo) is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae (or Nyssaceae), native to China and Vietnam. Growing to tall and wide, it is a broadly conical deciduous tree, with oval leaves long, which turn brillia ...

'' Oliv. – Chinese tupelo (southern China, Vietnam, Myanmar) * †'' Nyssa spatulata'' (Scott) Manchester (Extinct, Middle Eocene; Clarno Formation, Oregon) * ''

Nyssa sylvatica ''Nyssa sylvatica'', commonly known as tupelo, black tupelo, black gum or sour gum, is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America from the coastal Northeastern United States and southern Ontario south to central Florida and e ...

'' Marshall – Black tupelo or black-gum (eastern + central United States; eastern + southern Mexico; Ontario) * ''

Nyssa talamancana Nyssa may refer to: People * Gregory of Nyssa (335–395), 4th-century Christian bishop, theologian, and saint * Nyssa (''Doctor Who''), a fictional character in ''Doctor Who'' * Nyssa Raatko, a Batman super villainess Places * Nyssa (Alexander) ...

'' Hammel & N.Zamora - (Panama, Costa Rica) * ''

Nyssa ursina Nyssa may refer to: People * Gregory of Nyssa (335–395), 4th-century Christian bishop, theologian, and saint * Nyssa (Doctor Who), Nyssa (''Doctor Who''), a fictional character in ''Doctor Who'' * Nyssa Raatko, a Batman super villainess Places ...

'' * ''

Nyssa yunnanensis ''Nyssa yunnanensis'' is a species of tree in the Tupelo (tree), Nyssa genus. It is a dioecious tree (meaning that it has distinct male and female individual organisms) reaching in height. This flowering canopy tree inhabits mountainous tropica ...

'' W.C.Yin – Yunnan tupelo (Yunnan)

Uses

Tupelo wood is used extensively by artistic woodcarvers, especially for carving ducks and other wildfowl. It power carves excellently and holds good detail in the end grain. In commerce, it is used for shipping containers and interior parts of furniture, and is used extensively in the

veneer Veneer may refer to: Materials * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

and panel industry for crossbanding,

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

cores, and backs. The wood can be readily

pulped Pulp is a Lignocellulosic biomass, lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, Paper recycling, waste paper, or cotton paper, rags. Mixed with water and other chemica ...

and is used for high-grade book and magazine papers. In the past, the hollow trunks were used as "

bee gum A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

s" to hold beehives. Tupelos are popular

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

s for their mature form, shade, and spectacular autumn leaf colors. Tupelos are used as food plants by the larvae of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

species, including ''

Endoclita damor ''Endoclita damor'' is a species of moth of the family Hepialidae. It is known from India and the Himalayas. Food plants for this species include ''Albizia'', ''Altingia'', ''Cinchona'', ''Coffea'', ''Erythrina'', ''Eugenia'', ''Glochidion'', ''Ma ...

''. The Ogeechee Tupelo, sometimes referred to as the Ocheechee Lime, which is native to Georgia and north Florida produces an edible fruit in the form of a sour, oblong drupe.

Honey

Tupelos of the species ''

'' are valued as

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 ...

plants in the southeastern United States, particularly in the Gulf Coast region. They produce a very light, mild-tasting honey. In Florida, beekeepers keep beehives along the river swamps on platforms or floats during tupelo bloom to produce certified tupelo honey, which commands a high price on the market because of its flavor. Monofloral honey made from the nectar of ''Nyssa ogeche'' has such a high ratio of

fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galacto ...

to glucose that it does not crystallize. The

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 160 mi (180 km) long in the state of Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, drains an area of approximately into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its fa ...

in the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...

is the center for tupelo honey. The honey is produced wherever tupelo trees (three species) bloom in southeastern USA, but the purest and most expensive version (which is certified by pollen analysis) is produced in this valley. In a good harvest year, the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers has a value approaching $1,000,000.

Fossil record

Fruits conforming morphologically and anatomically to ''Nyssa'' have been identified from the Campanian of Alberta, Canada. The fruits conform to a kind that is common in the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

, formerly called ''Palaeonyssa''.Assessing the Fossil Record of Asterids in the Context of Our Current Phylogenetic Framework by Steven R. Manchester, Friðgeir Grímsson, and Reinhard Zetter, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Aug 2015 : Vol. 100, Issue 4, pg(s) 329-363 doi: 10.3417/2014033

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile for ''Nyssa'' (tupelo)

including many photos, from Louisiana State University {{Taxonbar, from=Q964952 Nyssa (genus) Swamps of Florida