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.

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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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