2.0" (inches)	................	$ 130.00
2.5" (inches)	................	$ 170.00
3.0" (inches)	................	$ 200.00

Scientific Classification Kingdom...: Plantae Division...: Magnoliophyta Class...: Magnoliopsida Order...: Cornales Family...: Cornaceae Subfamily...: Nyssaceae Genus...: Nyssa Species...: Nyssa Sylvatica

The Black Tupelo is a medium-sized deciduous tree which grows around 65 to 80 feet tall (rarely to 115 feet) and a trunk diameter of 20 to 40 inches (rarely up to 65 inches). 

It is native to eastern North America, from New England and southern Ontario south to central Florida and eastern Texas.

The leaf of Black Tupelo is variable in size and shape. It can be oval, elliptical or obovate, and 2 to 5 inches long. It is lustrous, with entire, often wavy margins. The leaf turns purple in autumn, eventually becoming an intense bright scarlet. 

The flower is very small, greenish-white in clusters at the top of a long stalk. The fruit is a black-blue, ovoid stone fruit, about 1/3rd of an inch long with a thin, oily, bitter-to-sour flesh. There are from one to three such fruit together on a long slender stalk. 

The bark is dark gray and flaky when young, but it becomes furrowed with age, resembling alligator hide on very old stems. The twigs of this tree are reddish-brown, usually hidden by a grayish skin. The pith is chambered with greenish partitions. The branches typically stand at right angles to the trunk.

The wood is hard, cross-grained, and difficult to split, especially after drying. It is used for pallets, rough floors, pulpwood and firewood. It is also grown as an ornamental tree in parks and large gardens, with its often spectacular intense red to purple fall color being highly valued.

The Black Tupelo is an important food source for many migrating birds in the fall. It's early color change (foliar fruit flagging) is thought to attract birds to the available fruit, which ripen before many other fall fruits and berries.

Birds recorded to feed on the fruit include: American Robin, Swainson's Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, European Starling, Scarlet Tanager, Gray Catbird, Cedar Waxwing, and American Crow, all primarily eastern birds migrating or residing year-round within the tree's range.