Fagus grandifolia this is not considered distinct in the Flora of North America. The Mexican beech ("Fagus mexicana"), native to the mountains of central Mexico, is closely related, and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of American beech, but more often as a distinct species. The only "Fagus" species found in the Western Hemisphere (assuming "F. mexicana" is treated as a subspecies), "F. grandifolia" is believed to have spanned the width of the North American continent all the way to the Pacific coast before the last ice age. It is a deciduous tree growing to tall, with smooth, silver-gray bark. The leaves
Nyssa sylvatica in the Northeast is "pepperidge." On Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, this species is called "beetlebung", perhaps for its use in making the mallet known as a beetle, used for hammering bungs (stoppers) into barrels. "Nyssa sylvatica" grows to tall, rarely to , with a trunk diameter of , rarely up to . These trees typically have a straight trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles. The bark is dark gray and flaky when young, but it becomes furrowed with age, resembling alligator hide on very old stems. The twigs of this tree are reddish-brown, usually hidden by a