Gum Bumelia
Sideroxylon lanuginosum
Family: Sapotaceae
OTHER NAMES
gum bumelia, gum bully, woollybucket bumelia, woolly bumelia, gum woollybucket, woolly buckthorn, chittamwood, shittamwood, gum elastic, coma, black haw
CHARACTERISTICS
Semi-evergreen trees (often shrubs) up to 50’. In our region this plant is often much smaller than it gets elsewhere, best treated as a shrub that can get treelike. The branches are very thorny. Umbels of white flowers appear May-July, followed by berries that ripen into a dark, purple color. This tree often, especially in our region, spreads underground to form thickets.
LANDSCAPE USE
Screening shrub or small shade tree. Great barrier plant because of its thorniness.
GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED
SUN full to part sun
WATER moderate
SOIL not picky, but well-drained
HARDINESS hardy to about -15°F
BASIN mid zone
CONTAINER not recommended
NUTRITION low to moderate
MAINTENANCE very little
Photo by Kimberlee KH Henao, iNaturalist
Sideroxylon lanuginosum on SEINET
ECOLOGY
Fruit eaten by birds and other mammals, nectar rich flowers for insects, safe nesting habitat for birds, larval host to many insects like the Bumelia Borer (Plinthocoelium suaveolens) the most beautiful longhorn beetle in North America.
ETHNOBOTANY
The Kiowa people use a substance in the outer bark as chewing gum. The colloquial name, "chittamwood" has been given to several tree species, including gum bully, and refers to the wood reputed to be used to make the biblical Ark of the Covenant.
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
Found in thickets along stream bottoms, or washes from 3,000-5,000’ throughout most of the southern United States, from Arizona east to South Carolina, north to Montana; south into Mexico.
TAXONOMY AND NAME
This plant is in the Sapotaceae, the sapote family. There are 83 accepted species of Sideroxylon mainly found in North and South America, but also in Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia, and various oceanic islands..
Formerly known as Bumelia lanuginosa.
Sideroxylon comes from the Greek sideros, iron and xyolon, for wood, referring to the harness of the heartwood, while the species name, languinosum, means woolly or downy referring to the quality of the leaves and twigs of this plant.