black gum

• (tree): blackgum

black gum (plural black gums)

1. A tree native to eastern North America, Nyssa sylvatica.

   Synonyms: black tupelo, pepperidge, sour gum

   • 1958, William O. Steele, The Perilous Road, published 2004, page 2:

     Sweet gums and black gums and sourwoods made the woods bright now when oaks and hickories had just begun to look dull and faded.

   • 2006, Richard M. Donovan, Paddling the Wild Neches‎, page 77:

     Old settlers learned from the bees and built their own beehives with two-foot sections sawn from the trunks of hollow black gums.

   • 2011, John S. Burk, The Wildlife of New England: A Viewer's Guide‎, page 175:

     The sanctuary's other habitats include forests of black cherry, red cedar, black locust, beech, and oak, with red maples and black gums in wet areas.

2. Certain eucalyptus trees of Australia
   1. Eucalyptus aggregata, of south eastern Australia
   2. Eucalyptus ovata, of south eastern Australia

      Synonyms: blue-leaf sally, large-flower swamp gum, Marrawah gum, swamp gum, white gum

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see black,‎ gum.
   • 2009, Tricia Telep, The Eternal Kiss, 2010, Large Print Edition, page 67,

     He grinned, displaying crooked teeth and black gums. Yikes.

• black gum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Nyssa sylvatica on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Nyssa sylvatica on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons