Hackberry - Celtis occidentalis

Ulmaceae - Elm Family 
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 89
Hackberry Tree
Celtis occidentalis

Spring

The Hackberry Tree in May

The Hackberry Bark

This Hackberry lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens.  ashevillebotanicalgardens.org.

The characteristic bark has what looks like corky bumps all over the bark.  The leaves are alternate, 2-5 inches long, and 1-2 inches wide.  The leaf base is rounded, unequal, the margins are coarsely serrate, and the tip are pointed.

Summer

I will be updating the Summer image this coming summer.  Please check back.

Fall 

I will be updating the Fall image this coming fall.  Please check back.

Winter

The Hackberry - Celtis occidentalis.  

Thank you Widimedia commons for this beautiful image and photographer, Sten Porce.  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celtis-occidentalis-fruits.JPG

This tree can be identified in the winter by the bark.  The bark gets these incredible corky bumps all over it.

The Champion Hackberry Trees

The champion Hackberry of North Carolina lives in Whiteville, North Carolina.  It is 93 feet high and has a circumference of 194 inches.
http://www.ncforestservice.gov/Urban/tree_detail.asp?Tree_ID=537

My favorite Hackberry Tree

My favorite Hackberry tree lives at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville.

Plant a Hackberry Tree

Many birds and small mammals eat these berries in the winter.

The Hackberry tree is the host plant for several species of butterflies including one called the Hackberry butterfly.

For the love of the trees,
Becky

from my journal...