Black Gum Tree Fruit Edible

The fruits are eaten by ruffed grouse bobwhite quail wild turkeys wood ducks over 30 species of songbirds several species of squirrels small rodents gray foxes opossums raccoons coyotes black bears and white tailed deer.

Black gum tree fruit edible. The plant sets fruit in summer but the nutmeat isn t ready until fall. While you wait the tree has much to offer. The sweet gum got its name for the resinous sap that results when you score its bark. Blackgums provide an abundant and varied food source for wildlife.

These fruits may be considered a litter nuisance in urban suburban plantings but are quite popular with many birds and mammals and they wash away quickly without staining. It is used in preserves and pies. Francois couplan in his book. The flowers are followed in the fall by blue black berries about the size of a peanut.

The berries are edible but if you eat one you will quickly learn why it is called a the tree is sometimes call sourgum. The only edible part of the tree is the dried sap which makes a fragrant bitter chewing gum. In general when you see healthy fruits on a plant suffering from a disease they still remain perfectly edible and safe to eat. Like many trees the black tupelo also called the black gum tree and the sour gum barely makes it into the edible realm.

The juice of the latter is used like lime juice. The wood is pale yellow colored very heavy strong and hard. It s called sweet gum to separate it from a different species altogether the black gum nyssa sylvatica which is extremely sour and bitter. The pulp of its fruit is technically edible extremely sour and extremely bitter which is why it is usually used in sweetened preserves.

Beavers eat the wood especially from young trees. Deer browse on the lush sprouts of seedlings. The trees spike ball fruit is almost as telltale for identification as the star shaped leaves. They are a valuable energy food for birds especially the american robin.

The fruit is a black blue ovoid stone fruit about 10 mm long with a thin oily bitter to sour tasting flesh and very popular with small bird species. Flowers attract pollinators and they attract a variety of insect eating birds. This is the time of year you might want a hard hat if you are walking under a black walnut tree. Black tupelo nyssa sylvatica also called black gum tree is a north eastern american native tree producing edible fruit in the fall.

Sweet gum sap has caught. In comparison the mildly bitter sweet gum is definitely sweeter. It is not however sweet. The gum has long been harvested and used for chewing gum but it is also known to have anti inflammatory properties.

The fruit is edible but very sour. There are 2 other species in the genus native to south eastern us they are the ogeechee lime nyssa ogeche and water tupelo nyssa aquatica this article primarily focuses on nyssa silvatica but many points could apply to either of the other species. This is particularly. Despite its name the gum is not sweet.

Juglans nigra or black walnut is a very hardy species of nut tree. Its sibling the water tupelo is likewise edible as is the ogeechee lime another tupelo.