Black Gum Tree Fruit Edible
The elliptic leaves are dark green and glossy.
Black gum tree fruit edible. These trees typically have a straight trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles. Black gum is becoming a popular landscaping tree. The yellowish white seeds are football shaped and have grooves running their entire length. The pulp of its fruit is technically edible extremely sour and extremely bitter which is why it is usually used in sweetened preserves.
The branches are alternate with simple 5 inch long leaves that are shiny green above and paler and hairy underneath. Natural gums are polysaccharides of natural origin capable of causing a large increase in a solution s viscosity even at small concentrations they are mostly botanical gums found in the woody elements of plants or in seed coatings. Nyssa sylvatica grows to 20 25 metres 66 82 ft tall rarely to 35 metres 115 ft with a trunk diameter of 50 100 centimetres 20 39 in rarely up to 170 centimetres 67 in. Tkhe bark is dark gray with rectangular fissures that give a blocky appearance.
The bark is dark gray and flaky when young but it becomes furrowed with age resembling alligator hide on very. It offers an impressive scarlet fall color and lacks the spiny balls of the unrelated sweet gum. Like many trees the black tupelo also called the black gum tree and the sour gum barely makes it into the edible realm. Fruits are ovoid bluish black and have a white coating.
Flowers give way to oval 1 2 long fruits which are technically edible but quite sour hence the common name. Although flowers are not showy they are an excellent nectar source for bees. Other photos are for illustrative purposes showing the fruit and our parent plant. The wood is used for veneer plywood boxes pulp tool handles gunstocks docks and wharves.
This tree is also known as sour gum or pepperidge and was called tupelo by native americans. If a female tree has been planted it will have half inch long dark blue black fruit which are readily consumed by the birds and the squirrels though they are too tart for human consumption. The plants are dioecious male and female flowers on separate trees as well as polygamo dioecious male and female flowers on the same tree. One of the most outstanding attributes of the blackgum is its glossy brilliant red leaf color in the early fall.
Blackgum fruit are a half inch long appear in fall and are bluish black. Clusters of three fruits are usually found. Bees make good honey from black gum blossoms. The fruit is edible but very sour.
Japanese plum tree mariposa pick up only in tewantin noosa area the plants we are selling can be seen in picture 2 they are 49 each.