DH and I have been out scouting our woods for dead trees. The bark on one compares to the bark on the live tree these leaves came from. Does anyone know what this is? Is it suitable for cutting and burning in the fireplace?
Help identifying
- Thread starter Country Lady
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ansehnlich1
Retired Hearth.com Member
Well Country Lady, I'm not sure what those leaves are, but I was feelin' sorry for ya that nobody responded yet, so I did 
Well Country Lady, I'm not sure what those leaves are, but I was feelin' sorry for ya that nobody responded yet, so I did
LOL Thank you for responding.
How 'bout a pic of the bark on the tree. That'll tell us more.DH and I have been out scouting our woods for dead trees. The bark on one compares to the bark on the live tree these leaves came from. Does anyone know what this is? Is it suitable for cutting and burning in the fireplace?
Woody Stover
Minister of Fire
Maybe Black Tupelo aka Blackgum, with those shiny leaves. If so, it's medium-heat wood but I guess if you're burning in a fireplace, heat output isn't a high priority. Not the easiest wood to split but not too bad. I just got a little bit a couple weeks ago but I've never burned it before.
bogydave
Minister of Fire
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
TimJ
Minister of Fire
Ram 1500 with an axe...
Minister of Fire
osagebow
Minister of Fire
I'd tentatively say black gum untill bark shots, but maybe an invasive/ornamental I don't know. Where y'all at? That will help narrow it down
This is two pictures from the bark of the tree. This tree is not in a swampy area.
wesessiah
Burning Hunk
MrWhoopee
Minister of Fire
My guess,
from Wikipedia:
Nyssa sylvatica's genus name (Nyssa) refers to a Greek water nymph;[1] the species epithet sylvatica refers to its woodland habitat.[1]
The species' common name tupelo is of Native American origin, coming from the Creek words ito ‘tree’ and opilwa ‘swamp’; it was in use by the mid-18th century[2]
While these trees are often known as simply "tupelo", the fuller name black tupelo helps distinguish it from the other species of the tupelo genus (Nyssa), some of which have overlapping ranges, such as water tupelo (N. aquatica) and swamp tupelo (N. biflora). The name "tupelo" is used primarily in the American South; northward and in Appalachia, the tree is more commonly called the black gum or the sour gum, although no part of the plant is particularly gummy.[1] Both of these names contrast it with a different tree species with a broadly overlapping range, the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), which does produce an aromatic resin.[1] Another common name used occasionally is the Northeast is pepperidge.[1]
On Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, this species is called "beetlebung",[citation needed] perhaps for its use in making the mallet known as a beetle,[citation needed] used for hammering bungs (stoppers) into barrels.
Description [edit]
Nyssa sylvatica leaves in the autumn.
Trunk of a mature Nyssa sylvatica tree
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). These trees typically have a straight trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles.[1] 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 greyish skin. The pith is chambered with greenish partitions.
The leaves of this species are variable in size and shape. They can be oval, elliptical, or obovate, and 5–12 cm (2–5 in) long. They have lustrous upper surfaces, with entire, often wavy margins. The foliage turns purple in autumn, eventually becoming an intense bright scarlet.
The flowers are very small, in greenish-white in clusters at the top of a long stalk. The fruit is a black-blue, ovoid stone fruit, about 10 mm long with a thin, oily, bitter-to-sour tasting flesh. There are from one to three such fruit together on a long slender stalk.
Additional characteristics include:
Distribution [edit]
Nyssa sylvatica grows in various uplands and in alluvial stream bottoms from southwestern Maine and New York, to extreme southern Ontario, central Michigan, Illinois, and central Missouri, south to southern Florida, eastern Texas, and eastern Oklahoma. It also occurs locally in central and southern Mexico.[4] Optimum development is made on lower slopes and terraces in the Southeastern United States
from Wikipedia:
Nyssa sylvatica's genus name (Nyssa) refers to a Greek water nymph;[1] the species epithet sylvatica refers to its woodland habitat.[1]
The species' common name tupelo is of Native American origin, coming from the Creek words ito ‘tree’ and opilwa ‘swamp’; it was in use by the mid-18th century[2]
While these trees are often known as simply "tupelo", the fuller name black tupelo helps distinguish it from the other species of the tupelo genus (Nyssa), some of which have overlapping ranges, such as water tupelo (N. aquatica) and swamp tupelo (N. biflora). The name "tupelo" is used primarily in the American South; northward and in Appalachia, the tree is more commonly called the black gum or the sour gum, although no part of the plant is particularly gummy.[1] Both of these names contrast it with a different tree species with a broadly overlapping range, the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), which does produce an aromatic resin.[1] Another common name used occasionally is the Northeast is pepperidge.[1]
On Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, this species is called "beetlebung",[citation needed] perhaps for its use in making the mallet known as a beetle,[citation needed] used for hammering bungs (stoppers) into barrels.
Description [edit]
Nyssa sylvatica leaves in the autumn.
Trunk of a mature Nyssa sylvatica tree
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). These trees typically have a straight trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles.[1] 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 greyish skin. The pith is chambered with greenish partitions.
The leaves of this species are variable in size and shape. They can be oval, elliptical, or obovate, and 5–12 cm (2–5 in) long. They have lustrous upper surfaces, with entire, often wavy margins. The foliage turns purple in autumn, eventually becoming an intense bright scarlet.
The flowers are very small, in greenish-white in clusters at the top of a long stalk. The fruit is a black-blue, ovoid stone fruit, about 10 mm long with a thin, oily, bitter-to-sour tasting flesh. There are from one to three such fruit together on a long slender stalk.
Additional characteristics include:
- Bark: Light reddish brown, deeply furrowed and scaly. Branchlets at first pale green to orange, sometimes smooth, often downy, later dark brown.
- Wood: Pale yellow, sapwood white; heavy, strong, very tough, hard to split, not durable in contact with the soil. Used for turnery. Sp. gr., 0.6353; weight of cu. ft., 39.59.
- Winter buds: Dark red, obtuse, one-fourth of an inch long. Inner scales enlarge with the growing shoot, becoming red before they fall.
- Leaves: Alternate, often crowded at the end of the lateral branches, simple, linear, oblong to oval, two to five inches (127 mm) long, one-half to three inches (76 mm) broad, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, entire, with margin slightly thickened, acute or acuminate. They come out of the bud conduplicate, coated beneath with rusty tomentum, when full grown are thick, dark green, very shining above, pale and often hairy beneath. Feather-veined, midrib and primary veins prominent beneath. In autumn they turn bright scarlet, or yellow and scarlet. Petioles one-quarter to one-half an inch long, slender or stout, terete or margined, often red.
- Flowers: May, June, when leaves are half grown. Polygamodiœcious, yellowish green, borne on slender downy peduncles. Staminate in many-flowered heads; pistillate in two to several flowered clusters.
- Calyx: Cup-shaped, five-toothed.
- Corolla: Petals five, imbricate in bud, yellow green, ovate, thick, slightly spreading, inserted on the margin of the conspicuous disk.
- Stamens: Five to twelve. In staminate flowers exserted, in pistillate short, often wanting.
- Pistil: Ovary inferior, one to two-celled; style stout, exserted, reflexed above the middle. Entirely wanting in sterile flower. Ovules, one in each cell.
- Fruit: Fleshy drupe, one to three from each flower cluster. Ovoid, two-thirds of an inch long, dark blue, acid. Stone more or less ridged. October.[3]
Distribution [edit]
Nyssa sylvatica grows in various uplands and in alluvial stream bottoms from southwestern Maine and New York, to extreme southern Ontario, central Michigan, Illinois, and central Missouri, south to southern Florida, eastern Texas, and eastern Oklahoma. It also occurs locally in central and southern Mexico.[4] Optimum development is made on lower slopes and terraces in the Southeastern United States
That was nice of Mr Whoopee to look up the info and it looks like what I found here. Tupelo. What I have read is that it is difficult to split. Might need a hydraulic splitter. med low btus.
Thank you MrWhoopee for this information. It sounds like something we might not want to waste our time on. I guess we'll keep looking for possibly a dead oak.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Just be aware Country Lady that even though a tree is dead does not mean it is dry and ready to burn.....especially oak! Oak is the one species that takes the most time to dry out. What you most likely will find though is that the top half or the top third of the tree will definitely be lower in moisture than the bottom part (if it is standing). That bottom part of the tree should be treated as though it were still green.
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