Southeastern mixed forests grow in below the pines. Sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), a shade tolerant tree, grows amid the oaks and hickories in the northern part of this ecoregion. Mesic forests occur in fertile, mesic, low-elevation habitats such as deep ravines and sheltered north- or east-facing slopes. Dominant trees include American beech ("Fagus grandifolia"), tulip tree ("Liriodendron tulipifera"), northern red oak, white ash ("Fraxinus americana"), black maple ("Acer nigrum"), sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), basswood ("Tilia americana"), and bitternut hickory ("Carya cordiformis"). Understory trees include pawpaw ("Asimina triloba") and painted buckeye ("Aesculus sylvatica"). Mesic mixed hardwood forests grow on mesic uplands, ravines, lower slopes,
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