{{Short description|Species of tree}} {{Speciesbox | name = Common hackberry | image = Celtis occidentalis 20090606.jpg | image_caption = | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Stritch, L. |date=2018 |title=''Celtis occidentalis'' |volume=2018 |article-number=e.T61987996A61987998 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T61987996A61987998.en |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> | status2 = {{TNCStatus}} | status2_system = TNC | status2_ref = <ref name="NatureServe" /> | genus = Celtis | species = occidentalis | authority = L.<ref name=ipni>''Celtis occidentalis'' was first described and published in ''Species Plantarum'' 2: 1044. 1753 {{ cite web |url=http://www.ipni.org:80/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=301424-2 |title=Plant Name Details for ''Genus epithet'' |work=IPNI |access-date=June 10, 2011}}</ref> | range_map = Celtis occidentalis range map 1.png | range_map_caption = Native range }}
'''''Celtis occidentalis''''', commonly known as the '''common hackberry''', is a large deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the '''nettletree''', '''beaverwood''', '''northern hackberry''', and '''American hackberry'''.<ref name="FS">{{Silvics |volume=2 |genus=Celtis |species=occidentalis |first1=John E. |last1=Krajicek |first2=Robert D. |last2=Williams}}</ref> It is a moderately long-lived<ref name="FS" /> hardwood,<ref name="FS" /> with a light-colored wood that is yellowish gray to light brown with yellow streaks.<ref>[http://www.clarywoodproducts.com/lumbercat.cfm "Hackberry"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610073223/http://www.clarywoodproducts.com/lumbercat.cfm |date=June 10, 2009 }} Clary Wood Products Gallery</ref>
The common hackberry is easily distinguished from elms and some other hackberries by its cork-like bark with wart-like protuberances. The leaves are distinctly asymmetrical and coarse-textured. It produces small fruits that turn orange-red to dark purple in the autumn, often staying on the trees for several months. The common hackberry is easily confused with the sugarberry (''Celtis laevigata''); these two are most easily distinguished by their range and habitat. The common hackberry also has wider leaves that are coarser above than the sugarberry.
== Description ==
The common hackberry is a medium-sized tree, {{convert|9|to|15|m|ft|round=5}} in height,<ref name="FS" /> with a slender trunk. In the best conditions in the southern Mississippi Valley area, it can grow to {{convert|40|m|ft|round=5|abbr=on}}. It has a handsome round-topped head and pendulous branches. It prefers rich moist soil, but will grow on gravelly or rocky hillsides. The roots are fibrous and it grows rapidly.<ref name=Keeler>{{cite book | last =Keeler | first =Harriet L. | title =Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them | publisher =Charles Scribner's Sons | year =1900 | location =New York | pages = 249–252 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhAwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249 }}</ref> In the western part of its range, trees may still grow up to {{convert|29|m|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref name="FS" /> The maximum age attained by hackberry is probably between 150 and 200 years in ideal conditions.<ref name="FS" />
The bark is light brown or silvery gray, broken on the surface into thick appressed scales and sometimes roughened with excrescences; the pattern is very distinctive.<ref name=Keeler /> The remarkable bark pattern is even more pronounced in younger trees, with the irregularly-spaced ridges resembling long geologic palisades of sedimentary [layered] rock formations when viewed edge-wise [cross-section]. Coins as large as U.S. quarters can easily be laid flat against the valleys, which may be as deep as an adult human finger.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
The branchlets are slender, and their color transitions from light green to red brown and finally to dark red-brown. The winter buds are axillary, ovate, acute, somewhat flattened, one-fourth of an inch long, light brown. The bud scales enlarge with the growing shoot, and the innermost become stipules. No terminal bud is formed.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
The leaves are alternately arranged on the branchlets, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, often slightly falcate,<ref name=Keeler /> {{convert|5|-|12|cm|in|frac=4|abbr=on}} long by {{convert|3|-|9|cm|in|frac=4|abbr=on}},<ref name="fna">{{eFloras|1|233500334|Celtis occidentalis |family=Ulmaceae |first1=Susan L. |last1=Sherman-Broyles |first2=William T. |last2=Barker |first3=Leila M. |last3=Schulz}}</ref> very oblique at the base, with a pointed tip. The margin is serrate (toothed), except at the base which is mostly entire (smooth). The leaf has three nerves, the midrib and primary veins prominent. The leaves come out of the bud conduplicate with slightly involute margins, pale yellow green, downy; when full grown are thin, bright green, rough above, paler green beneath. In autumn they turn to a light yellow. Petioles slender, slightly grooved, hairy. Stipules varying in form, caducous.<ref name=Keeler />
The flowers are greenish and appear in May, soon after the leaves. They are polygamo-monœcious, meaning that there are three kinds: staminate (male), pistillate (female), perfect (both female and male). They are borne on slender drooping pedicels.<ref name=Keeler />
The calyx is light yellow green, five-lobed, divided nearly to the base; lobes linear, acute, more or less cut at the apex, often tipped with hairs, imbricate in bud. There is no corolla.<ref name=Keeler />
There are five stamens, which are hypogynous; the filaments are white, smooth, slightly flattened and gradually narrowed from base to apex; in the bud incurved, bringing the anthers face to face, as flower opens they abruptly straighten; anthers extrorse, oblong, two-celled; cells opening longitudinally.<ref name=Keeler />
The pistil has a two-lobed style and one-celled superior ovary containing solitary ovules.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
The fruit is a fleshy, oblong drupe, {{convert|1/4|to|3/8|in|cm|abbr=on}} long, tipped with the remnants of style, dark purple when ripe. It is borne on a slender stem and ripens in September and October. It remains on the branches during winter.<ref name=Keeler /> The endocarp contains significant amounts of biogenic carbonate that is nearly pure aragonite.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Wang, Jang|author2=Jahren, A. Hope|author3=Amundsen, Ronald|year=1996|title=Potential For [Carbon 14] Dating Of Biogenic Carbon In Hackberry (Celtis) Endocarps|url=http://eoas.fsu.edu/sites/default/files/u12/Faculty-Misc/Wang/pubs/potential-Cdating-biogenic-carbonate-hackberry-endocarps.pdf|journal=Quaternary Research|volume=47|pages=337–343|doi=10.1006/qres.1997.1894|s2cid=49232599 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
<gallery> Celtis occidentalis seedlings.jpg|Seedlings Mature Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), Chicago, IL.jpg|Tree at the University of Chicago Hackberry bark (Celtis occidentalis).jpg|Tree bark, University of Chicago Celtis occidentalis (4).JPG|Ridges on bark, Jevremovac, Serbia Celtis occidentalis (26).JPG|Canopy in autumn, Jevremonac Hackberry winter form.JPG|Mature tree in winter, Kentucky Celtis occidentalis NewGrowth.jpg|Young leaves are tomentous Celtis occidentalis leaf.png|Leaf close-up Celtis-occidentalis-flower.jpg|Leaves and flowers </gallery>
== Distribution and habitat == The common hackberry is native to North America from southern Ontario and Quebec, through parts of New England, south to North Carolina-(Appalachia), west to northern Oklahoma, and north to North Dakota.<ref name="POWO">{{cite POWO |id=301424-2 |title=''Celtis occidentalis'' L. |access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref> There is a small isolated pocket at the southern end of Lake Manitoba.<ref>{{cite web |title=Field Guide Trees of Manitoba |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/forest/pubs/forest_lands/field_guide.pdf |publisher=Manitoba Sustainable Development |access-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321224906/https://www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/forest/pubs/forest_lands/field_guide.pdf |archive-date=21 March 2023 |page=53 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hackberry's range overlaps with the sugarberry (''Celtis laevigata''), making it difficult to establish the exact range of either species in the South. Although there is little actual overlap, in the western part of its range the common hackberry is sometimes confused with the smaller netleaf hackberry (''Celtis reticulata''), which has a similar bark. Hackberry grows in many different habitats, although it prefers bottomlands and soils high in limestone. Its shade tolerance is greatly dependent on conditions. In favorable conditions its seedlings will persist under a closed canopy, but in less favorable conditions it can be considered shade intolerant.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
== Ecology == thumb|The fruits often hang on the tree through the winter.
The leaves are eaten by four gall-producing insects of the genus ''Pachypsylla'', which do not cause serious damage to the tree. A number of insects and fungi cause rapid decay of dead branches or roots of the tree.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
The small berries, hackberries, are eaten by a number of birds,<ref>{{cite book|last=Little|first=Elbert L.|title=The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region|publisher=Knopf|location=New York|year=1980|isbn=0-394-50760-6|page=415}}</ref> including robins and cedar waxwings,<ref>{{cite book |last=Peattie |first=Donald Culross |author-link=Donald C. Peattie |title=A Natural History of Western Trees |year=1953 |publisher=Bonanza Books |location=New York |page=468}}</ref> and mammals. Most seeds are dispersed by animals, but some seeds are also dispersed by water.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
The tree serves as a butterfly larval host, particularly the hackberry emperor and the tawny emperor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=hackberry emperor - Asterocampa celtis (Boisduval & Leconte) |url=https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/hackberry_emperor.htm |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=entnemdept.ufl.edu}}</ref>
===Conservation=== ''Celtis occidentalis'' was evaluated by NatureServe 16 August 2016. During that review they evaluated it as secure, G5, with a very low risk of extinction due to an extensive range and little or no concern due to declines.<ref name="NatureServe">{{cite NatureServe |title=''Celtis occidentalis'' |id=2.152491 |access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref>
== Cultivation and uses == thumb|upright=1.2|A streets with 'bođoš' in Sombor, Serbia
Hackberry's wood is light yellow; heavy, soft, coarse-grained, not strong. It rots easily, making the wood undesirable commercially, although it is occasionally used for fencing and cheap furniture.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}
Hackberry is only occasionally used as a street or landscape tree, although its tolerance for urban conditions makes it well suited to this role. Sombor in Serbia and Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, are known for the extensive use of hackberry (in the latter case along with closely related but Eurasian ''Celtis australis'') as a street tree. In Canada, the city of Montreal has over 10,000 ''Celtis occidentalis'' trees among its street trees.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arbres publics de Montréal |url=https://www.quebio.ca/fr/arbresmtl |website=QuéBio: La biodiversité au Québec |access-date=18 July 2024 |archive-date=18 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718135901/https://www.quebio.ca/fr/arbresmtl |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The tree's pea-sized berries are edible, ripening in early September. Unlike most fruits, the berries are remarkably high in calories from fat, carbohydrate, and protein, and these calories are easily digestible without cooking or preparation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thayer |first1=Samuel |title=Nature's Garden |date=2010 |publisher=Forager's Harvest |location=Birchwood, WI |isbn=978-0-9766266-1-9 |page=130}}</ref> Omaha Native Americans ate the berries casually, while the Dakota used them as a flavor for meat, pounding them fine, seeds and all. The Pawnee also pounded the berries fine, added a little fat, and mixed them with parched corn.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gilmore|first1=Melvin Randolph|title=Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region|date=1914|publisher=Washington, Govt. print. off.|location=Washington, DC|page=[https://archive.org/details/usesofplantsbyin00gilm/page/n64 35]|url=https://archive.org/details/usesofplantsbyin00gilm|access-date=2014-08-08}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Source-attribution|{{cite book | last =Keeler | first =Harriet L. | title =Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them | publisher =Charles Scribner's Sons | year =1900 | location =New York | pages =[https://archive.org/details/cu31924052395609/page/n278 249–252] }} }}
==Further reading== * {{FEIS |last=Gucker |first=Corey L. |date=2011 |type=tree |genus=Celtis |species=occidentalis }}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211035947/http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/frame/ceoco2.htm ''Celtis occidentalis'' images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu] * {{CalPhotos|Celtis|occidentalis}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q470006}}
occidentalis Category:Medicinal plants of North America Category:Plants described in 1753 Category:Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Category:Trees of humid continental climate Category:Flora of Montana Category:Flora of Colorado Category:Flora of Wyoming Category:Flora of Utah Category:Trees of Northern America