Black Tupelo, also known as Black Gum (Nyssa Sylvatica) is native to Indiana and probably also to Pennsylvania. It is a stunningly beautiful tree with glossy green leaves and a large rounded crown. It also boasts beautiful fall red-orange color and strong branches. The only drawback is it is slow to medium in growth, not fast. It also makes great shade.
I do not know about toxicity to any animals. That would need to be researched. I had one in my yard in Louisville and when I moved to Indiana I had to plant one in my new yard because I loved it so much!
I always thought of tulip poplars as big limb droppers in forest settings. They get tall very fast and shed those shaded lower limbs quickly. But in an open setting it would probably be a beautiful, full tree.
I’d probably lean red mulberry if you could source some guaranteed genetics.
I don’t see how any mulberry could satisfy the “non-messy” requirement.
Yeah I agree. I purposely ignored that in favor of the leaves and berries being edible for the chickens.
Beech may be another option if they aren’t diseased yet in your location. A beech nut here is a rare find since the squirrels usually get them first.
we used to have whole ridges covered in mature beech. between logging and the bark fungus, its rare to find one now over 6in. on the stump. I’ve been planting red oak in places that used to have beech. some places they are 15-20ft tall now. i encourage other landowners i come across to do the same. i know some folks in town that have mature oak and i go collect the acorns. i dont know if red oak is toxic to horses but that’s another option and they grow quickly.
I still have some large beech trees out in my back woods…no sign of beech leaf disease yet. There’s a 35ft american chestnut and some healthy elms out there as well. So we’ve managed to avoid some of the diseases.
We still have some larger ash, but EAB is beginning to find them.
If OP wanted to try planting an ash you could try some blue ash. Those have shown some resistance (or maybe less of a preference) to EAB compared to the other ash species.
here its a bark disease that’s killing the beech makes big round lesions in the bark that expands until it kills the tree. beech grows so slow here by times its 10yrs old, its infected. Dutch elm disease wiped most of the elms back in the 70’s. there are a few still surviving in isolated fields here and there. e.a,b came here from Canada about 8 yrs ago. already huge swaths up and down the St John river here of dead and dying ash, which has become the primary species that replaced the elms that used to be there. now i think boxelder will take over as the primary species until some other bug or disease comes along and wipes them out. we never had any chestnut , walnut , butternut, American hazels or persimmons in this part of the state as until in the last 40 yrs its become warm enough for them to survive here so ive been planting the heck out of them and hopefully some survive to reproduce. as they arent native hopefully the blight doesn’t find them up here. fingers crossed. got 25 Dunstan chestnuts , 10 butternuts, 10 black walnuts, and 25 d.e.c persimmons grown from seed going in the ground next spring. ![]()