The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 3/Nyssa

by Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry

 

NYSSA

 

Nyssa, Linnæus, Gen. Pl. 308 (1737); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. i. 952 (1867); Harms in Engler u. Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 8, 257 (1898).

Tupelo, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 80 (1763).

Ceratostachys, Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 644 (1825).

Agathisanthes, Blume, loc. cit. 645.

Daphniphyllopsis, Kurz, Journ. Asiat. Soc. 1875, ii. 201.

 

Deciduous trees or shrubs belonging to the order Cornaceæ. Leaves alternate simple, stalked, with margin entire or remotely one- to four-toothed, without stipules. Branchlets with discoid pith.

Flowers small, diœcious or polygamous, borne at the summit of axillary peduncles, the staminate flowers numerous in heads, umbels, or short racemes, the pistillate and perfect flowers solitary or aggregated in two- to eight-flowered heads, umbels, or short racemes. Staminate flowers: calyx short, flat or cup-shaped, five- to seven-toothed or entire; petals five to seven or ten to fourteen; stamens five to ten, inserted on the margin of an entire or lobed disc; filaments slender, anthers oblong. Pistillate flowers: calyx campanulate or urceolate, five-toothed or entire; petals four to five, seldom three or six to eight; stamens absent or equal in number to the petals and alternating with them, bearing fruitful or barren anthers; ovary coalesced with the receptacle, crowned above by a disc, one- rarely two-celled, one ovule in each cell; style one, recurved, stigmatic along one side near the apex. Fruit a drupe, oblong or ovoid, urceolate at the apex; flesh thin, oily; stone bony, thick-walled, terete or compressed, ridged or winged, one- or rarely two-celled, containing one seed, which has a membranous testa and copious albumen. Cotyledons flat and leafy.

The alternate stalked simple leaves, entire and ciliate in margin; and the branchlets with true terminal buds, without stipules or their scars, showing on section the peculiar discoid pith, are characteristic of Nyssa.

Seven species of Nyssa have been described:—Nyssa sessiliflora, Hooker, a tree attaining 60 feet in the Himalayas and Java; has not been introduced and would probably not be hardy in England. Nyssa sinensis, Oliver, has recently been introduced from Central China. The remaining five species are natives of Eastern North America. Nyssa acuminata, Small, a species imperfectly known, is a small shrub growing in pineland swamps in Georgia. Nyssa Ogeche, Marshall, a tree of moderate size, occurring in river swamps in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, is unknown in cultivation outside of its native home, and would probably not grow in England. Nyssa biflora, Walter, a small tree, growing in ponds, from North Carolina to Louisiana, is probably only a variety of Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall; and no trees referable without doubt to it are known to us in England. Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall, and Nyssa aquatica, Marshall, occur rarely in cultivation in England.

 

NYSSA SYLVATICA, Tupelo, Pepperidge, Black Gum

 

Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 97 (1785); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 75, t. 217 (1893), and Trees N. Amer. 707 (1905).

Nyssa multiflora, Wangenheim, Nordam. Holz. 46, t. 16, f. 39 (1787).

Nyssa villosa, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 258 (1803); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1317 (1838).

 

A tree, occasionally attaining in America 100 feet in height and 15 feet in girth. Bark thick and deeply fissured longitudinally. Young shoots glabrous or with short, erect pubescence. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 2, leaf from a tree in Arnold Arboretum, U.S.; and Fig. 9, leaf from a tree at Kew) extremely variable in shape and size, obovate, oval or elliptical; base tapering or rounded, apex acuminate or acute, margin entire or repand and ciliate; upper surface glabrous, dark green, usually shining; lower surface glabrous or with slight pubescence on the midrib and principal veins. Petiole channelled or winged, glabrous or pubescent, ¼ to 1 inch long. Flowers on pubescent peduncles, appearing after the leaves; staminate flowers numerous, stalked and in crowded clusters; pistillate flowers sessile, two to fourteen ina head. Fruit ovoid, bluish-black, ⅓ to ⅔ inch long; stone terete or more or less flattened, with ten to twelve indistinct ribs.

Seedling.—The caulicle, glabrous, terete, and about 2 inches long, ends in a long flexuose whitish tap-root, which gives off numerous lateral fibres. The cotyledons are ovate-lanceolate, rounded at both base and apex, about 1½ inch long by ⅝ inch broad, on petioles ⅛ inch long, slightly coriaceous, entire in margin, pale beneath, glabrous, pinnately veined. The stem, reddish and pubescent, gives off alternately the true leaves, which are oval, with a cuneate base and acuminate apex, entire or one- to two-toothed and ciliate in margin, pale and glabrous on the under surface with the exception of some pubescence at the base of the midrib, and with a pubescent petiole. The preceding description was drawn up in the summer of 1905, from a seedling at Colesborne, raised from seed gathered by Elwes at Boston at the end of the preceding September.

 

Identification

Nyssa sylvatica, with leaves quite glabrous or pubescent only on the midrib and principal veins beneath, is readily distinguishable from Nyssa aguatica, with leaves grey and pubescent all over the under surface, and with one or two teeth often on the margin. Nyssa sinensis, which resembles in foliage Nyssa sylvatica, is distinguished by the appressed pubescence of the shoots.

In winter Nyssa sylvatica (Plate 200, Fig. 5) shows the following characters:— Twigs slender, glabrous, or with slight pubescence near the tip only; stipule-scars absent. Leaf-scars small, crescentic, set somewhat obliquely on slightly prominent pulvini, surrounded by a narrow raised rim, marked with three bundle dots. Buds conical, pubescent, and acute; scales five or six, imbricated, pubescent, ciliate, reddish or greenish; terminal bud larger than the lateral buds which arise at an angle of about 45°. Pith solid, but interrupted by transverse woody partitions, showing on longitudinal section a ladder-like appearance.

The inner scales of the bud are accrescent; and the base of the shoot is marked by ring-like scars, indicating where these scales have fallen off in the preceding spring.

 

Varieties

This species is extremely variable in leaf, both in wild specimens and cultivated trees. This is well shown in the Strathfieldsaye tree, the leaves of which vary from a long elliptical acuminate to a short broad obovate obtuse outline; some are quite glabrous, whilst others are pubescent on the midrib and principal veins beneath. Usually the leaves are very shining above and coriaceous; but in a tree growing at Kew in a wood, they are dull above and thin in texture. In some specimens there are numerous glands on the under surface of the leaf; whilst in others, as in a specimen growing in the Arnold Arboretum collected by Elwes, no glands are visible. The fruit is also variable, being either terete or flattened. The tree occurs in America in very diverse stations, both on wet soils and on dry mountain slopes; and this may explain the remarkable extent of its variation.

Var. biflora, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 76, t. 218 (1893).

Nyssa biflora, Walter, Fl. Carol. 253 (1788); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. iii. 1317 (1838); Sargent, Trees N. Amer. 709 (1905).

Leaves smaller than in the type, very narrow, glabrous and glandular beneath, quite entire in margin. Fruit with an oval, flattened stone, narrowed at both ends and prominently ribbed. This variety is a small tree, rarely more than 30 feet high, growing in ponds on the pine barrens near the coast from N. Carolina to Louisiana. It usually has a trunk with a swollen base, and appears to be a form of the species which has adapted itself to life in water.

The cultivated trees mentioned by Loudon as being Nyssa biflora were all probably Nyssa sylvatica of the typical form. (A.H.)

 

Distribution

Nyssa sylvatica is found in North America from Southern Ontario, where it grows to a good size near Niagara, and in New England, where I saw it in the neighbourhood of Boston 60 or 70 feet high, westwards to Central Michigan and South-Eastern Missouri, and southwards to Florida and Texas. It attains its largest size, according to Sargent, in the southern Appalachian Mountains, growing as high as 100 feet with a maximum girth of about 15 feet.^[1] It is found generally in wet soil on

 

Plate 145: Nyssa at Strathfieldsaye

Plate 145.

NYSSA AT STRATHFIELDSAYE

 

the borders of swamps; but in the south grows also on high wooded mountain slopes. It is very variable in form, sometimes branching close to the ground; but oftener has a stout straight trunk, covered with light brown deeply furrowed bark, which is often curiously divided into hexagonal scales. Plate 144 b shows the trunk of a tree in America. The upper branches are twiggy and usually crooked. The glossy green leaves are rarely disfigured by fungi or insects, and turn to deep red in autumn. An excellent illustration of a group of trees growing near a pond in Massachusetts is given in Garden and Forest, ii. 491, which resemble in habit the Siberian or Japanese larch; and this is the form which the trees often assume in low swampy ground in New England. Another figure in the same journal, vii. 275, fig. 46, shows the habit of a tree growing in drier ground in Pennsylvania.

 

Cultivation

Nyssa sylvatica was in cultivation at Whitton, near Hounslow, in 1750. It is, when well grown, a very distinct and beautiful tree, the brilliant scarlet assumed by its leaves in autumn rendering it a very desirable ornament for the park or pleasure ground.

Sargent says that one reason why this tree is not more generally planted is that its long roots with few rootlets make it difficult to transplant, and that it must be either planted out when quite young or frequently transplanted in the nursery. Those which I have raised from seed grew slowly the first year, but seemed to ripen their young wood better than many American trees. When pricked out singly into pots in the following spring they all died.

We have seen very few specimens in this country, the only one of great size being the tree^[2] at Strathfieldsaye, which measured in 1897 74 feet high by 5 feet 5 inches in girth. It grows on rather heavy soil. This tree was reported by Loudon to be about 30 feet high in 1838, and is probably over 100 years old (Plate 145). It produced seed in 1906 which appeared to be mature.

There is a tree at Munden, near Watford, the seat of the Hon. A. Holland Hibbert, which has a short bole of 4½ feet long with a girth of 3 feet 3 inches, dividing into two stems, the branches of which are very spreading, forming a crown of foliage 38 feet in diameter; the total height is only 20 feet. Mr. Daniel Hill of Watford, who kindly sent these measurements, says that the fork has been leaded over; and it is possible that the tree lost its leader early from some accident, and in consequence subsequently assumed its present peculiar habit.

At White Knights, near Reading, there was a large tree of this species which was cut down some years ago; and there are now many suckers arising from the roots.^[3] There is another tree at Bicton about 35 feet high by 3½ feet, which in August 1906 had full-sized fruit upon it which seemed likely to ripen.

There are three small trees in Kew Gardens, the largest about 20 feet high, growing in a densely wooded part close to the Arboretum Nursery.

A tree growing in the garden at Harpton in Radnorshire, at an elevation of 700 feet above sea-level, was in 1905 274 feet high by 2 feet 8 inches in girth, The owner, Sir Herbert E. F. Lewis, Bart., who kindly sent us particulars, has not noticed during the last forty years any considerable increase in the size of this tree. Its leaves turn bright yellow in autumn.

 

Timber

The wood seems to be unknown in commerce, and is not mentioned by any of the English writers, but Sargent says it is very durable under water and used for keels of boats, and being extremely difficult to split, is also used for yokes, rollers, wheel-hubs, and pumps. Sections of it in Hough's American Woods, Pt. I. No. 9, show a pale or reddish-brown wood of very close texture, somewhat resembling sycamore in appearance. (H.J.E.)

 

NYSSA AQUATICA, Cotton Gum, Tupelo Gum

 

Nyssa aquatica, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 96 (1785); Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1058 (ex parte) (1753); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 83, t. 210 (1893), and Trees N. Amer. 711 (1905).

Nyssa uniflora, Wangenheim, Nordam. Holz. 83, t. 27, f. 57 (1787).

Nyssa denticulata, Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 446 (1789).

Nyssa tomentosa, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 259 (1803).

Nyssa angulisans, Michaux, loc. cit.

Nyssa grandidentata, Michaux f., Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 252, t. 19 (1812); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii, 1319 (1838).

A tree, attaining in America 100 feet in height, with a trunk 12 feet in girth above the greatly enlarged base. Bark thick, longitudinally fissured, and roughened on the surface by small scales. Young shoots pubescent towards the tip, becoming glabrous below in summer. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 10) elliptical or ovate-oblong, base rounded or tapering, apex long-acuminate; margin entire or repand, ciliate, often with one to three or more triangular teeth, usually ending in a bristle; upper surface dark green, glabrous; lower surface greyish in colour and with a scattered, fine pubescence; petioles more or less pubescent, 1 to 1½ inch or more in length.

Flowers on long, slender, pubescent peduncles: staminate flowers pedicellate in dense clusters, with a cup-shaped, obscurely five-toothed calyx and oblong short petals rounded at the apex; pistillate flowers solitary, with long, tubular calyx, ovate minute spreading petals, and included stamens with small mostly fertile anthers. Fruit solitary, on long, drooping stalks, oblong, dark purple, about an inch long; stone obovate, rounded at the apex, pointed at the base, flattened, with about ten wing-like ridges.

 

Identification. (See under Nyssa sylvatica)

In winter, specimens from the tree at White Knights showed the following characters:—Twigs stout, pubescent near the tip, glabrescent elsewhere. Leaf-scars slightly oblique on prominent pulvini, almost orbicular or obcordate, notched in the upper margin, surrounded by a slightly raised rim, and marked by three conspicuous bundle-dots. Lateral buds minute, globose, two-scaled, reddish, shining, glabrous, arising in the notch of the leaf-scar. Terminal buds nearly globose, short and broad, with four to five thick, pubescent, reddish scales, keeled on the back and apiculate at the apex; in December the three outermost scales had dropped the apiculus and showed a truncate apex with a terminal scar. The base of the shoot is marked by ring-like scars as in Nyssa sylvatica.

 

Distribution

Nyssa aquatica is found growing in swamps throughout the coast region of the United States, from Southern Virginia to Texas, and in the Mississippi valley, in Arkansas, Southern and South-Eastern Missouri, Western Kentucky, and Tennessee, and in the valley of the lower Wabash River in Illinois.

An interesting account of the peculiar habit of this tree, as observed in the swamps of Arkansas, is given by Coulter.^[4] Occurring in company with Taxodium distichum, wherever the ground is inundated with water, the trunk develops an enlarged, dome-like base, often of immense size. A tree only 45 feet high, of which a figure is given, had a swollen base 55 feet in girth at the point where the roots entered the ground. When the water-supply is scanty the base is only slightly enlarged; and trees growing in dry soil show no swelling of the trunk. Coulter saw numerous seedlings of Nyssa, and concludes that it is gradually ousting from the swamps the Deciduous Cypress, which rarely seeds itself. Wilson^[5] states that around the swollen base of these trees in the swamps there are masses of roots extending 6 to 8 inches above high-water line, each root going vertically up out of the water, and after a sharp bend going down into the water again. He compares these roots, rising above the water for purposes of aeration, with the knees of Taxodium.

 

Cultivation

Nyssa aquatica was cultivated^[6] by Collinson near London in 1735. It is now scarcely known in cultivation in England, the only tree which we have found beingone at White Knights Park, Reading, the residence of T. Friedlander, Esq. It is a slender tree, about 36 feet by 2 feet 2 inches, which looks of considerable age and is not vigorous in growth. Loudon^[7] states that most of the trees which he saw at White Knights in 1833 were planted between 1790 and 1810; and one was a fine specimen^[8] of Nyssa aquatica, perhaps identical with the tree now living. Michaux states that it endures the climate of Paris, and does not exact in Europe as moist a soil as it constantly requires in the United States. (A.H.)

 

Timber

According to Holroyd,^[9] it has only recently been possible to market the timber of this tree, and under a fictitious name, so great has been the prejudice against this and others known as gums. Formerly when lands bearing tupelo and cypress were logged, the cypress alone was taken, and tupelo trees from 2 to 3 feet in diameter were left, because the lumbermen considered them to be worthless. At present, however, tupelo timber is extensively cut in Alabama, near Mobile, as well as in Southern and Central Louisiana. The best grades closely resemble the Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron). The wood has a fine uniform texture, is moderately hard and strong, not elastic, but very tough and hard to split, and easy to work with tools. It is not durable in contact with the ground, and requires much care in seasoning. It is now extensively used for house flooring and indoor finish. Mr. Weale informs me that it has a tendency to warp and split which cannot be prevented by any known process of seasoning; and only a small quantity has as yet been imported to England, in the form of boards, which are worth from Is. 9d. to 2s. per cubic foot, and are used by the makers of cheap furniture. But he thinks that if it was sent in boards as well planed as those of the so-called Hazel Pine, it would be more attractive, and its consumption would increase. (H.J.E.)

 

NYSSA SINENSIS, Chinese Tupelo

 

Nyssa sinensis, Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant. t. 1964 (1891).

 

A tree, attaining in China 4o feet in height. Young shoots covered with a dense appressed white short pubescence, retained in the second year. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 1) elliptical, base tapering, apex acuminate, margin entire and ciliate; upper surface dull, dark green, and glabrous except for some slight pubescence on the midrib towards the base; lower surface light green, shining, pilose on the midrib and chief veins and occasionally on the veinlets; petiole, ¼ to ⅜ inch long, pilose.

Flowers, on long slender axillary peduncles, pedicellate, crowded in racemose clusters. Staminate flowers with a minute calyx, narrow oblong petals, and five to ten stamens on a fleshy disc. Pistillate flowers imperfectly known, but with bifid style and glabrous ovary. Fruit in clusters of about three, on short pedicels at the ends of long (two to three inches) erect or ascending pubescent peduncles; oblong, bluish, 3 inch long; flesh scanty; stone with ten inconspicuous longitudinal ribs.

This is a rare tree, occurring in mountain woods in Central China, in the western part of Hupeh, and on the Lushan Mountains, near Kiukiang, in Kiangsi.^[10] It was discovered by me in 1888, and was subsequently found by Mr. E.H. Wilson, who sent home seed to Messrs. Veitch in 1902, from which a single plant has been raised at Coombe Wood, where it is perfectly hardy so far. (A.H.)

 

1. But Ridgway measured a black gum in Wabash Valley, 125 feet high by 13 feet in girth, and 64 feet to the first limb.
2. The girth of this tree given in Gard. Chron. xxvi. 162 (1899), is evidently erroneous, 14 feet 10½ inches being a misprint for 4 feet 10½ inches.
3. Schenck, in Biltmore Lectures on Sylviculture, 56 (1905), says that in the forest old trees are often surrounded by an abundance of seedlings; but on abandoned fields it seems to come up from sprouts and not from seeds.
4. Report Missouri Bot. Garden, 1904, xv. 56, plates 18, 19.
5. Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sc. 1889, p. 69.
6. Aiton, Hort. Kew, iii. 446 (1789).
7. Gardeners' Magazine, ix. 664 (1833).
8. This tree is not referred to by Loudon in his large work, published in 1838.
9. U.S. Dept. Agric., Forest Service Circular, No. 40 (1906).
10. E.H. Wilson in Gard. Chron. xlii. 344 (1907).