[ Home ] [ Up ]

Hackberry            

   Physical information

A medium sized tree, 40 to 60 ft tall.  It has a short, straight trunk with a diameter of 1 to 2 ft.  It has a few large branches, with many slender, horizontal, zig zag branches that are 8 to 10 ft. above the ground. Branches form a rounded crown.  Twigs are pubescent and marked by pale, oblong lenticels.  Twigs are round and spinose.  The bark is 1 to 1 and 1/2 in. thick, dark brown, and is broken into deep, short ridges.

                          

It has alternate, simple leaves.  They are 2 to 4 inches long and 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches broad.  They are thin and veiny.  There are three primary veins.   Fine, secondary veins are arranged in a delicated, lacy network  making the leaves similar to those of wild nettle hence the name "nettle tree".  They are ovate to ovate-lanceolate in shape.  They are oblique at the base and have a coarsely serrate margin above the entire base.   They are green above, and a paler green beneath. The petioles of the leaves are short, slender, and hairy.  Leaves turn a light yellow in late autumn.
       
The tree flowers in May.  Flowers are ploygamomonoecious.  They are green and inconspicuous on slender pedicels. They appear after leaves unfold.  The staminate is in clusters at the base of the shoot.  The pistilate is usually solitary in the axils of the upper leaves.  There are five stamens.  The calyx  is greenish.  The ovary is one celled, sessile, green, and lustrous.   The tree fruits in September or October.  The fruit will remain on the tree throughout winter.  They are dark purple, 1/4 in. long, and 1/3 inches in diameter.  They are fleshy and edible.  The nutlet is bony and thick   walled.  Seed fills cavity in nutlet.  The seed is a favorite winter food of many birds.

Wood is heavy and soft.  It is coarse grained and light yellow.  It has thick, whitish sapwood.  It weighs 37lbs/ft when when air dry.

    Horticultural information

It is desirable as a street tree and is easily transplanted.  It appears well in ornamental grounds.  It produces good shade and is very tolerant of shade.   It is useful in shelterbelt, erosion, and windbreak plantings.  It is tolerant of city smoke. It is frequently planted in the west due to drought resistance.  It has a shallow, fibrous root system.   It does best on moist, rich soils, but is stunted and scraggly on poor, dry sites.  It is vigorous and long lived, living 150 to 200 years.  It is very rapid growing.  It grows well on soils high in lime.  It cannot withstand intermittent flooding well.  Comparatively free from insects and fungi.   It is susceptible to "witch's broom" which are dense clusters of small, short twigs in the crowns of trees caused by combined activities of a small insect and a fungus.  It has several foliage diseases:
 - Cercospora spegazzini: causes circular spots 2-7mm. in diameter that are yellowish to gray.  A fungus that can lead to premature leaf fall.
 - Cylindrosporium defoliatum: causes irregular grayish spots 1-2 cm. in diameter.  A fungus can lead to premature leaf fall.
- Cercosporella celtidis: produces one of the commonest of the hackberry leafspots.
- Mycosphaerella maculiformis:  .causes late season leaf spotting
- Phleospora celtidis: produces a spot bearing imperfectly developed pycnidia.
- Phyllosticta celtidis: causes  a common late season spot that bears small, black pycnidia.
- Septogloeum celtidis: reported as a hackberry spot fungus in New York.

    Distribution

It is scattered widely throughout the East and the Great Plains, except in the coldest parts of the
northern interior of the states and the deep south.The tree is common through the lower an upper penisulas of Michigan.     

    Economic interests

          Wood is often sold as elm to make homes and furniture.