Bee Tupelo Tree Seeds | Ogeechee Lime | Sour Tupelo | (Nyssa ogeche)

The source of the most prized honey in the world. The Ogeechee River's gift to beekeepers.

Nyssa ogeche, the Bee Tupelo or Ogeechee Lime, is the tree responsible for Tupelo honey, one of the most expensive and most sought-after specialty honeys in the world, produced in significant quantities only in a narrow corridor of river swamps along the Apalachicola and Ogeechee rivers in the Florida panhandle and coastal Georgia where the tree grows naturally. Its flowers produce nectar with a unique sugar composition, lower in glucose and higher in fructose than most flower nectars, that creates honey resistant to crystallization and with a distinctive light, floral, almost effervescent flavor that honey connoisseurs consistently rate as the finest American honey available. Growing Bee Tupelo from seed plants the tree that beekeepers camp beside in swamps to capture two weeks of the most valuable honey season in the year. If you are looking to buy Bee Tupelo seeds or grow Ogeechee Tupelo from seed, this is the tree with the most commercially significant flower nectar of any native species in the South.

• Produces the nectar for Tupelo honey, the most prized and expensive specialty honey in the United States
• Unique nectar sugar composition creating honey that resists crystallization virtually indefinitely
• Native to the river swamps of the Florida panhandle and coastal Georgia, one of the most geographically restricted native trees in the South
• White flowers in spring attractive to honeybees and native bees over a concentrated 2 to 3 week bloom period
• Produces small, olive-like fruit eaten by wood ducks, bears, and numerous wildlife species

Things you probably did not know about the Bee Tupelo

Pure Tupelo honey commands prices of $20 to $30 per pound at specialty retailers. Genuine Tupelo honey, produced by beekeepers who move hives to the Apalachicola River swamps specifically for the bloom, is among the most expensive honeys in the world when sold pure and certified. The short bloom window, the inaccessible swamp habitat, and the limited geographic range of the tree combine to make pure Tupelo honey a genuine rarity. Much of what is sold as Tupelo honey is blended with other honeys to increase volume.

The honey was made famous by the film Ulee's Gold. The 1997 film Ulee's Gold, starring Peter Fonda, follows a Florida panhandle beekeeper managing Tupelo honey production. The film brought national attention to the extraordinary labor and specific natural conditions required to produce genuine Tupelo honey and created significant commercial demand for authentic Florida Tupelo honey that persists today.

The Ogeechee name refers to the Ogeechee River in Georgia where the tree was first scientifically described. The species was described botanically from specimens collected along the Ogeechee River in coastal Georgia in the late 18th century. The Ogeechee River drains into the Altamaha River estuary in the same coastal Georgia region where the Franklin Tree was discovered by the Bartrams, making that corner of Georgia one of the most botanically significant landscapes in American botanical history.

The fruit is called Ogeechee lime and was used as a citrus substitute in colonial Georgia. The small, tart fruits of Bee Tupelo were used in coastal Georgia in the 18th and 19th centuries as a substitute for limes and lemons, which were difficult to obtain in the colonial interior. The fruits were pickled, used in beverages, and made into a tart preserve that served as the only readily available citrus-flavored ingredient in the coastal Georgia swamp country for generations.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Nyssa ogeche
• Stratification: Required, 90 days cold moist stratification
• USDA Zones: 7 to 9
• Soil: Moist to wet, tolerates standing water and seasonally flooded sites, does not tolerate dry conditions once established
• Light: Full sun to partial shade
• Height: 30 to 60 feet
• Spread: 20 to 35 feet
• Growth Rate: Moderate, 1 to 1.5 feet per year

Plant it near water in zones 7 to 9 and if you keep bees, move a hive nearby in April. What comes out of those hives for two weeks in May is unlike any other honey you will produce all year.