Appearance
"Celtis reticulata" usually grows to a small-sized tree, 6 to 9 metres in height and mature at 15 to 35 centimetres in diameter, although some individuals are known up to 21 m high and 60 cm thick. It is often scraggly, stunted or even a large bush. It grows at altitudes of 500–1,700 m.Hackberry bark is gray to brownish gray with the trunk bark forming vertical corky ridges that are checkered between the furrows. The young twigs are puberulent, or covered with very fine hairs. The blade of the leaves can be 2–8 cm long, usually about 5–6 cm. They are lanceolate to ovate, disproportionate at the base, leathery, entire to serrate, clearly net-veined, base obtuse to more or less cordate, tip obtuse to acuminate, and scabrous, with a dark green upper surface and a yellowish-green lower surface. The small stalks attaching the leaf blade to the stem are generally about 5 to 6 millimetres long.
The flowers are very small, averaging 2 mm across. They form singly, or in cymose clusters pedicel in fr 4–15 mm. The fruit is a rigid, brownish to purple berry, 5 to 12 mm in diameter, with thin, sweet pulp. If uneaten, they can stay on the plant through early winter.
Naming
"C. reticulata" is often confused with the related species "Celtis pallida", the spiny hackberry or desert hackberry,"Celtis occidentalis", the common hackberry, and "Celtis laevigata", the sugarberry or southern hackberry.
Habitat
The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, particularly certain moth caterpillars. The berries are eaten by wildlife, including birds. Mule deer and bighorn sheep eat the fresh twigs. Beavers feed on the plant as well.Uses
The berries and seeds have long been used as a food source by Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, including the Apache, both fresh and preserved, and the Navajo, who eat them both fresh and ground.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
