HACKBERRY
(Celtis Occidentalis)

Hackberry is a common name for this tree in nearly all parts of its range, but it has other names. It is sometimes confused with sugarberry (Celtis mississippiensis). They call it nettle tree in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Michigan, and in Tennessee it is known as American nettle-tree. In Vermont it is hoop ash; in Rhode Island one-berry; hack-tree in Minnesota, and juniper tree in New Jersey.

The name hackberry is not of American origin. It dates far back in the languages of western Europe and is believed to have the same origin as the word haw, which, in its turn meant hedge. If that etymology is correct, the word really means hedge berry, which is not an inappropriate name for the tree. The name is sometimes applied to a small bird cherry in Europe. The New Jersey name juniper-tree is in recognition of the resemblance of the berries to those of red cedar or red juniper. No reason has been assigned for the name nettle-tree.

Its range covers about 2,000,000 square miles in the United States besides part of Canada. It grows from the Atlantic on the coast of New England to the tide water of the Pacific on Puget sound; in southern Florida and in Texas. It is not found in pure stands, but often as single trees far apart. This is the case in the northeastern part of the United States in particular where probably not more than one tree might be found in a whole county. Frequently the people in the neighborhood do not know what the tree is, and suppose it is the last representative on earth of some disappearing species.

It is far from being a disappearing tree. Not only is it widely dispersed over the United States, but related species are scattered through many countries of the old world, from Denmark to India. There are said to be between fifty and sixty species, only two of which are in the United States.

It has been claimed by scholars that the lotus referred to by ancient writers was the hackberry. It was reputed to cause forgetfulness when eaten, but the claim was fictitious, for the fruit does not produce that effect. It is not now regarded as human food. Tennyson deals with the fiction very beautifully in the poem “Lotus Eaters,” but he took liberties with botany when he represented fruit and flowers on the same branch; for, though the berries hang several months, they drop before the next season’s flowers appear.

The hackberry belongs to the elm family, being of the same relation as the planertree. The leaves resemble those of the elm, but are more sharply pointed. The fruit is usually classed as a berry. It ripens in September and October, but remains on the tree several months, becoming dry. It is about one-fourth inch long, dark purple, with a tough, thick skin, and with flesh dark orange. Most of the pale brown seeds are eaten by birds.

The tree varies greatly in size. In some remote corners of its immense range it is little more than a shrub, while at its best it may attain a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three or four. Its average size is about that of slippery elm. The bark varies as much in appearance as the tree in size. Sometimes it has the smooth surface and pale bluish-green appearance that suggest the bark of beech; again it is darker and rougher, like the elm. It frequently exhibits the harsh warty bark which is peculiar to the hackberry, and when present it is a pretty safe means of identification. The warts may be conical, oblong, or sharp-pointed, and probably an inch in height. When closely examined, most of them are found to consist of parallel strata of bark which may usually be pulled off without much difficulty. The warts are a decided disadvantage to the tree in some of the low swampy districts of Louisiana where Spanish moss is a pest. This moss (which is not a true moss), is propagated principally by tufts and strands which are carried by wind until they find anchorage among the branches of trees where they increase and multiply at a rapid rate until they finally smother or break down the unfortunate tree which supplied a lodging place. The hackberry’s warts catch and hold every flying strand of moss that touches them, and hundreds, perhaps thousands of pounds of it may accumulate on a single tree. The grayish-green color of the moss often exactly matches the hue of the tree’s bark.

The reported annual cut of hackberry lumber in the United States is less than 5,000,000 feet. That can be only a fraction of the total output. Few mills report it separately, but list it as ash. The wood looks more like ash than elm. It is heavy, but only moderately hard and strong. Its color is more yellowish than ash, but the annual rings of growth resemble that wood. The sapwood is thick, and growth is rapid where conditions are favorable.

It is doubtless used by industries in thirty states or more, but comparatively few factories report it. In Texas it is listed in the box and crate industry. In Louisiana it rises to more importance, for that is the region where the tree attains its best. Slack coopers make kegs, tubs, and barrels of it; vehicle manufacturers convert it into parts of buggy tops and the running gears of wagons; it serves for furniture and interior finish; and it takes the place of ash for hoe handles and parts of agricultural implements. The uses are nearly the same in Mississippi, but it is used there for rustic seats and other outdoor furniture. In Missouri it is found suitable for cart axles, saddle trees, stitching horse jaws, and wagon beds. In Arkansas it goes with ash into flooring, and interior finish for houses. Illinois builders work it into fixtures for stores. In Michigan it serves the same purposes as in Texas, baskets, boxes, and crates. These examples doubtless are representative of its uses wherever the tree is found in commercial quantities. The wood is not durable in contact with the soil. It is also liable to attack by boring insects if logs are allowed to retain their bark.

The hackberry has been planted to a small extent as a street tree in the southern towns, but it is not as popular as the elms and oaks. It will never occupy a more important position in the country’s lumber industry than it holds at present. It is a tree which, for some reason, inspires little enthusiasm in anybody; but nature takes care of it fairly well, and the small sweet drupes which it bears are a guarantee that the species will not want for seed carriers as long as birds continue to have access to its branches in winter.

Sugarberry (Celtis mississippiensis) is frequently mistaken for hackberry even by persons who ought to be able to distinguish them. Botanists formerly confused the two, and probably some insist still that sugarberry is only a variety of hackberry. The leaves generally have smooth margins, and that would differentiate the tree from the hackberry were it not that sometimes the sugarberry has serrate leaves. The drupes are bright orange red and are usually smaller than the purple fruit of hackberry. As for the wood of the two species, it is not easy to tell one from the other. The sugarberry’s range is not one-third as extensive as hackberry’s, but covers some hundreds of thousands of square miles in the southeastern quarter of the United States. Its northern limit is in Illinois and Indiana where it occupies rich bottom lands and the banks of streams. It reaches its largest size in the lower Ohio river basin, grows southward into Florida and west into Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. It crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico, appearing to outstrip the hackberry in that direction. It outstrips it in another direction also, for it is found in the Bermuda islands. The French of Louisiana called it bois inconnu, or the unknown wood.

This tree shows a marked tendency to run into varieties, and cultivation would probably develop the tendency. The differences between the species and the varieties are plain enough to the systematic botanist, but are such that the lumberman or other ordinary observer would scarcely notice them. The variety which has been named Celtis mississippiensis reticulata, but without any English name except sugarberry, is a tree forty or fifty feet high, covered with blue-gray bark, very rough. It ranges from Dallas, Texas, to the Rio Grande and westward into New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and into southern California and Lower California. In eastern Texas it is found on dry limestone hills, but westward only in mountain canyons in the vicinity of water. In the southern part of Texas this tree is usually known as palo blanco, but those who apply that name have no idea that it is a variety of sugarberry but suppose it is a tree peculiar to their region. In Cameron and Hidalgo counties, Texas, either because an extra good quality grows there, or because some opinion exists in its favor, it is liked for wagon material, and occasionally is turned for table legs and other parts of furniture. It is quite common in that part of Texas as an ornamental tree in yards and along streets of small towns. The whiteness of the bark is the most striking feature.