black gum
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black gum,
ornamental deciduous tree (Nyssa sylvatica family Nyssaceae) native to E North America. The leaves turn bright scarlet in the fall. The very tough wood was used for wheel hubs and other purposes. It is sometimes called sour gum, tupelo, and pepperidge, names also given other species of the genus, some native to Asia. This is the source of the popular tupelo honey. The genus Nyssa is probably derived from an ancestral dogwood and is included by some botanists in the family Cornaceae (dogwood family) of the division MagnoliophytaMagnoliophyta, division of the plant kingdom consisting of those organisms commonly called the flowering plants, or angiosperms. The angiosperms have leaves, stems, and roots, and vascular, or conducting, tissue (xylem and phloem).
..... Click the link for more information. , class Magnoliopsida, order Cornales.
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