General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Tree
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Water Preferences: Mesic
Dry Mesic
Dry
Soil pH Preferences: Neutral (6.6 – 7.3)
Slightly alkaline (7.4 – 7.8)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 7b
Plant Height: 50 to 100 feet
Plant Spread: 40 to 60 feer
Leaves: Deciduous
Fruit: Edible to birds
Fruiting Time: Late summer or early fall
Flowers: Inconspicuous
Flower Color: Green
Other: Green, insignificant for ornamental purposes.
Flower Time: Spring
Suitable Locations: Street Tree
Uses: Windbreak or Hedge
Shade Tree
Edible Parts: Fruit
Wildlife Attractant: Birds
Butterflies
Resistances: Drought tolerant
Propagation: Other methods: Other: Seeds
Pollinators: Bees
Miscellaneous: Tolerates poor soil
Monoecious
Conservation status: Least Concern (LC)

Conservation status:
Conservation status: Least Concern
Image
Common names
  • Common Hackberry
  • Hackberry
  • American Hackberry
  • Dwarf Hackberry
Botanical names
  • Accepted: Celtis occidentalis
  • Synonym: Celtis occidentalis var. pumila
  • Synonym: Celtis occidentalis var. canina
  • Synonym: Celtis occidentalis var. occidentalis

Photo Gallery
Location: Aberdeen, NC (my garden 2022)
Date: January 25, 2023
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw
Location: Opp, AL  Z8b
Date: 2022-11-11
Location: Beautiful Tennessee, my garden
Date: 2017-12-08
Location: Aberdeen, NC (my garden 2023)
Date: April 30, 2023
Hackberry petiole gall (Pachypsylla venusta) #33; RAB p.388, 56-3
Location: My garden zone 5
Date: 2019-04-09
note the rings , fresh cut stump
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2015-10-29
fall foliage
Location: Indiana zone 5
Date: 2014-04-28
ruff bark on young tree 8'' diameter
Location: Zilker Nature Preserve, Austin, Texas
Date: 2022-04-05
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: October 2, 2021
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: October 2, 2021
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw
Location: Aberdeen, NC (my yard)
Date: March 4, 2023
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2015-10-29
young tree planted in yard with fall color
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2022-10-11
top of tree with fall foliage
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2022-10-11
light yellow fall color of leaves
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2022-10-11
maturing planted tree with a touch of fall color
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: September 2021
hackberry #33 (RAB p.388, 56-3-2); LHB p. 335, Greek name if a sw
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Location: Brownstown Pennsylvania
Date: 2017-08-13
Host plant for caterpillars of cool butterflies!
Location: Thorndale, Pennsylvania
Date: 2016-01-02
trunk and bark
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2022-10-11
maturing planted tree in a campus landscape
Location: My garden, Pequea, Pennsylvania USA
Date: 2018-03-07
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: October 2021
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: October 2021
Hackberry #33; RAB p.388, 56-3-2; LHB p. 335, "Greek name of a sw

photo credit: R. A. Nonenmacher
Location: Opp, AL  Z8b
Date: 2017-05-24
Location: Brownstown Pennsylvania
Date: 2017-08-14
Location: Botanical garden UG, Gent, Belgium
Date: 2015-09-04
Location: Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Date: 2010-08-20
full-grown tree in a parkway
Location: Aurora, Illinois
Date: late summer in 1980's
mature tree
Location: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Date: 2012-09-14
young tree wild at parking lot
Location: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Date: 2012-09-14
fruit and leaves
Location: Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Date: 2010-08-20
portion of trunk with bark
Location: Aurora, Illinois
Date: summer in 1980's
leaves with some leaf galls
Location: Thorndale, Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-08-03
leaves

photo credit: Gmihail
Location: Ghent University Botanical Garden, Belgium
Date: 2015-08-31

photo credit: R. A. Nonenmacher

Credit NPS
Location: Aurora, Illinois
Date: summer in 1980's
huge, full-grown tree in a yard
This plant is tagged in:
Image Image

Comments:
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Nov 26, 2017 9:21 PM concerning plant:
    The Common Hackberry is a nice, reliable shade tree that has a native range from a little of southeast Canada and New Hampshire down to central Tennessee to northern Oklahoma up to eastern North Dakota. It grows bout 1.5 to 2 feet/year and lives about 150 to 200 years. It is very adaptable to good or poor or heavy clay soils. This member of the Elm Family, and it looks elm-like, is sold at a good number of larger nurseries and native plant nurseries. It is wind-firm and really a clean tree. It has a good-looking gray bark that is sort of warty. Its elm-like leaves get to 4 inches long x 2 inches wide, the leaf margins are singly toothed, and the leaf apex is tapering and slightly curved, and leaves turn a good or poor yellow in fall. The species does develop some witches'-broom from a fungus and mite, but it is not serious, and neither is the nipple gall on the leaves. It is a common pioneer tree along with Green Ash and Boxelder. The little brownish-purple berries are loved by birds. It should be planted more than it is. There are several cultivars.
  • Posted by sheryl (Hot, hot, hot, Feenix, AZ - Zone 9b) on Dec 8, 2011 10:09 PM concerning plant:
    Host plant for the tawny emperor and the mourning cloak butterfly caterpillars. Also provides food for birds: Quail, pheasants, woodpeckers, and cedar waxwings.

    Tolerates wet soils, is not picky about the soil it is in.
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WebTucker On October 2, 2021 Obtained plant
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Discussion Threads about this plant
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
Maybe some kind of elm? by sedumzz Oct 28, 2021 8:22 AM 1

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