Black Gum

[mike_belben]

I've been trudging around the woods and taking note of the wide variety of black gum situations I encounter, trying to decide what i think of the tree, can and should do with it and so forth.  a search brought up this incredibly complete scholarly article that i don't want to lose, and figured i should share here for the benefit of all. 

Tales from the Blackgum, a Consummate Subordinate Tree | BioScience | Oxford Academic

[WDH]

Spiral grain makes blackgum difficult to dry without twist, warp, and cup.  Down here in the Southeast where it is common, it is considered palletwood. 

[Southside]

Yup and amazingly now folks take apart pallets and hang the boards on their living room walls...

[mike_belben]

Ive been mostly just looking at its interaction with other trees in the forest and trying to decide where it is a benefit and where it is a detriment.


what I've observed this week seems to suggest that when grown even aged to maturity from a former clearcut or succession/abandonment environment, BG seems to help push the dominant oaks a little taller in most instances i can find, and is mostly vertical/ straight without the big signature sideways limbs. i have one that looks like antlers.   almost every tall straightish tupelo i have found has 10ft taller oaks next to it, and usually nice ones at that.


however black gum's slow growth, flood and drought resistance, coupled with its crazy extreme shade tolerance seems to make it a hurdle for other trees beneath it when a significant number of BG get into the understory of oaks in select harvesting.    they're capable of reaching way out sideways then become a dense umbrella in most of the high-grade examples I've been looking at.  the future crop below that umbrella ends up being shade tolerant and usually of poor form, and often dying underneath the BG anyways


i think it wise to reduce BG saplings in the understory of a select harvest, from a sawlog stand.  but i also wonder if I'm mistaken.  they say poplars and oaks and i get it, i witness that thriving all the time.  i wonder if BG and oak is a good combo too.  

[Ron Wenrich]

When I was marking wood, we would remove black gum whenever possible, especially from a stocking standpoint.  We worked mainly in sawtimber sizes.  The reasoning was we didn't want the seed source, and we didn't want a low quality tree occupying space for a more productive species.  But, that was more from an economic/crop mgmt standpoint.  At the mill level, it produced RR ties and pallet lumber.  

Black gum does have other uses in the ecosystem.  The young sprouts are eaten by deer, the seeds are eaten by a wide range of wildlife.  It is also a great honey producer.  Hollow trees offer good den sites.

A lot depends on your mgmt objectives.  It doesn't seem to harbor disease or insects that effect more marketable species.  It doesn't overcome a forest, and is a minor part of a maturing forest.  Forests produce a multitude of products.  I don't think it hurts to leave some or take some.  

[Old saw fixer]

     I have a Black Gum growing under the oaks in front of the house.  I was going to cut it down, but after reading the article Mike linked to, and reading here, I am going to leave it, it's not hurting a thing...

[stanmillnc]

Is a black gum tree the same as "sweet gum?"

[mike_belben]

No, different trees.  I very rarely see sweetgum here and therefore know nothing about its bahavior.


  Thanks for the input ron, that sums up my feelings on it very well.  For deer i see evidence that young gum stump sprouts may be their #1 tree bud choice with red maple and sourwood (and greenbriar) tied after that so i ensure a lot of it. by lobbing the young ones off knee high they turn into a feeder cactus for a few years each.  



I didnt know about the honey aspect! Pollen is the only reason i spare a sourwood so i will add that to the forefront of my gum decisions.  Thank you!

[moodnacreek]

Take an axe and split some for firewood, good fun. Up here they call it pepperidge.

[mike_belben]

Im young and handsome but i wasnt born yesterday doug. 

;D

[moodnacreek]

That's what  YOU say.

[mike_belben]

Nah, mom and granny told me that as a kid.  Now my wife is another story.  I think shes after my money.  

;)

[Greyhound]

We have quite alot of black gum in our understory.  I'm planning to thin it out pretty heavily.

[Rhodemont]

I have quiet a bit of black gum in my woodland.  While there are some mature trees most are 6 to 8 inch understory to the oaks with a lot of pepperbush below that.  I consider it junk, tough to split, not good for a fence post* and not big enough to mill.  But it is very good for wildlife habitat.  In my upcoming thinning to promote oak regeneration the mature BG will come out  along with the smaller understory in the drier areas, it would be a detriment to regeneration if left.  We will leave the BG in the wetlands areas that are going to only have the dead and some mature oak removed.  It will help protect the wetlands.
*35 years ago I saw those nice straight 6 inch trees and used a bunch of them for fence posts.  They rotted out and fell down in a couple years.

[mike_belben]

In most swampy areas i encounter in my location, only a tall white oak will remain.  The mushy zones are typically too well stocked in gum, poplar and red maple of all sizes for there to be enough light to support new oak beneath them.