Tupelo (tree)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2010) |
| Tupelo | |
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| Black tupelo foliage and immature fruit | |
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| Genus: | Nyssa |
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Nyssa aquatica - Water Tupelo | |
The tupelo (sg. Template:Pron-en), or pepperidge tree, genus Nyssa (Template:Pron-en),[1] is a small genus of about 9 to 11 species of trees with alternate, simple leaves. Most are highly tolerant of wet soils and flooding, and some need such environments as habitat. Five of the species are native to eastern North America from the extreme south of Canada south to eastern Mexico; the others are found in east and south Asia from China south to Malaysia and west to the Himalaya. A related genus, Davidia, the Dove tree, occurs in China.
Tupelo honey
Tupelos are valued as honey plants in the southeastern United States, particularly in the Gulf Coast region. They produce a very light, mild-tasting honey. In northern Florida, beekeepers keep beehives along the river swamps on platforms or floats during tupelo bloom to produce certified tupelo honey, which commands a high price on the market because of its flavor. Monofloral honey made from the nectar of the Ogeechee Tupelo has such a high ratio of fructose to glucose that it does not crystallize.
The Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle is the center for tupelo honey. The honey is produced wherever tupelo trees (three species) bloom in southeastern USA, but the purest and most expensive version (which is certified by pollen analysis) is produced in this valley. In a good harvest year, the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers has a value approaching US$1,000,000.
Other applications
Tupelo wood is used extensively by artistic woodcarvers, especially for carving ducks and other wildfowl. In commerce, it is used for shipping containers and interior parts of furniture, and is used extensively in the veneer and panel industry for crossbanding, plywood cores, and backs. The wood can be readily pulped and is used for high-grade book and magazine papers. In the past, the hollow trunks were used for bee gums to hold beehives.
Tupelo trees are popular ornamental trees for their spectacular red fall color.
Tupelos are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Endoclita damor.
Popular Culture and Related Geography
- The city of Tupelo, Mississippi is named for the tree. It is the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds wrote a song called "Tupelo", describing the birth of Elvis Presley.
- "Tupelo Honey" is the title song of a 1971 album by Van Morrison.
- In the 1997 movie Ulee's Gold, Ulee is a beekeeper whose "gold" is tupelo honey.
- In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Timequake, Kilgore Trout's last poem has the lines: "When the tupelo/ Goes poop-a-lo / I'll come back to youp-a-lo".
- The Wellesley College "Tupelos" are an all-female [a capella] group named after Tupelo Point, a site on the Wellesley College campus.
- Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country band whose name combined two words chosen at random from a dictionary.
References
- ^ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607