Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests hickories ("Carya" spp.), red maple ("Acer rubrum"), sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), white ash ("Fraxinus americana"), tulip tree ("Liriodendron tulipifera"), American beech ("Fagus grandifolia"), black cherry ("Prunus serotina"), black birch ("Betula lenta"), black tupelo ("Nyssa sylvatica"), and American elm ("Ulmus americana"). Flowering dogwood ("Cornus florida") is a common understory tree. Central Appalachian pine-oak rocky woodlands occur on lower-elevation hilltops, outcrops, and rocky slopes and have a patchy or open aspect. Pitch pine ("Pinus rigida") and Virginia pine ("Pinus virginiana") are common within their respective ranges. These pines are often mixed with dry-site oaks such as chestnut oak ("Quercus prinus"), bear oak
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