Bear Tupelo

Nyssa ursina Small, Torreya 27: 92. 1927
Shrubs; branchlets at first pubescent, green or red, becoming glabrous and dark red and finally brown or dark grey; leaves often crowded on short lateral branches, the blades 2-7 cm. long, 0.7-1.3 cm. broad, coriaceous, elliptic to spatulate, rounded to obtuse at the apex, tapering to the base, glabrous, the under surface paler, minutely dotted and papillose-roughened; petioles 2-5 cm. long; peduncles from the axils of the cataphylls and of bracts on the proximal part of the branchlets, these sometimes foliaceous; staminate inflorescence a 2-4-flowered umbel on a peduncle 1-2 cm. long; pistillate inflorescence and flowers as in Nyssa biflora but smaller; drupes globose, about 1 cm. in diameter, black, on peduncles 1-2 cm. long, the endocarp oval, costate with several blunt ridges.
Type locality: Swamp north of Port St. Joe [Gulf County], Florida. Distribution: Known only from the Apalachicola River delta, Florida.