Is black gum good tree? (lawn, growing, flowering tree, olives)
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well, the only one I know is very polite to strangers and nice to his mother, LOL.
seriously, the (eastern) native tree nyssa silvatica is known for it's lustrous green leaves in summer, good fall color, and tolerance of moist clay-type soils and hot moist summers. OTOH, it would probably not enjoy the hot dry summers of the western U.S. without some supplemental water (as in a lawn). it is not an especially showy flowering tree by any means IMHO (if pollinated it can sometimes produce lots of small "blue-berry" looking fruit supposedly) or a really fast grower but can become rather large so ultimately not a tree for a small lot but a potentially good large shade or specimen tree if you have the space.
ultimately whether or not it's a "good" or "bad" tree is dependent on your specific needs and your particular site and climate.
Last edited by georgeinbandonoregon; 10-24-2017 at 01:52 PM..
I love black gum trees....they turn the prettiest deep red in the fall, and they are one of the first trees to turn.
In my area it seems like they shed one red leaf at a time, the whole tree never does change color at once.
One thing for sure though, is that they're almost impossible to transplant from the wild. I tried moving a sapling once, and I swear that taproot must have been 3' long.
As post 2 says, it depends on what your yard / climate can accommodate and what you are trying to do. I do find them one of the most beautiful at autumn foliage. While they are not too common in the wild here (Northeast Ohio tends to have more sweet gum with the prickly golf size balls) the monumental one over 70 feet in the nearby park system is a perfect specimen. It sets amidst green open lawn on low valley floodplain location. It turns a full range of color spectrum with its glossy leaves, from yellow, golden, orange, orange red, red, crimson, deep purple. It is one of my personal favorites for fall color.
As with any tree you really need to consider what your soil is like to find what tree will do best for your needs. If I ever learned how to post a photo in this site I'd do so as I have some nice shots over the years of this perfect specimen. I'm guessing it was planted during the WPA years.
Don't know about Black Gums but I know Sweet Gum trees are a mess with the spikey seed balls. It's a beautiful looking tree in Summer and Fall and amazing for firewood but unfortunately nobody wants them anymore around here because of those seed balls. Wonder if black gum is the same.
Don't know about Black Gums but I know Sweet Gum trees are a mess with the spikey seed balls. It's a beautiful looking tree in Summer and Fall and amazing for firewood but unfortunately nobody wants them anymore around here because of those seed balls. Wonder if black gum is the same.
not really as they are not closely related at all from a botanical/taxonomic standpoint, their foliage is different shaped (they both can have nice fall color, though) and instead of (spikey) seed balls the "black gum" (Nyssa sylvatica) has fleshy fruit somewhat like olives which are probably much less painful than the "sweet gum" (liquidambar styraciflua) to walk on. other than they both have "gum" in their "common" names (and that potentially IS confusing) and are both (eastern) native deciduous trees it's actually rather difficult to really confuse one with the other as actual trees growing in the ground.
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