Most Nyssa species are highly tolerant of wet soils and flooding, and some need such environments as habitat. Five of the species are native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada through the Eastern United States to southern Mexico. Other species are found in eastern and southeastern Asia from China south through Indochina to Malaysia and southwest to the Himalayas. A related genus, Davidia, with the Dove tree (Davidia involucrata), is native to central China.
Tupelo wood is used extensively by artistic woodcarvers, especially for carving ducks and other wildfowl. In commerce, it is used for shipping containers and interior parts of furniture, and is used extensively in the veneer and panel industry for crossbanding, plywood cores, and backs. The wood can be readily pulped and is used for high-grade book and magazine papers. In the past, the hollow trunks were used for bee gums to hold beehives.
Tupelo trees are popular ornamental trees for their mature form, shade, and spectacular Autumn leaf colors.
Tupelos are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Endoclita damor.
Honey
Tupelos are valued as honey plants in the southeastern United States, particularly in the Gulf Coast region. They produce a very light, mild-tasting honey. In northern Florida, beekeepers keep beehives along the river swamps on platforms or floats during tupelo bloom to produce certified tupelo honey, which commands a high price on the market because of its flavor. Monofloral honey made from the nectar of N. ogeche has such a high ratio of fructose to glucose that it does not crystallize.
The Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle is the center for tupelo honey. The honey is produced wherever tupelo trees (three species) bloom in southeastern USA, but the purest and most expensive version (which is certified by pollen analysis) is produced in this valley. In a good harvest year, the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers has a value approaching US$1,000,000.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupelo
