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Celtis laevigata
Also called Southern Hackberry, Sugar Hackberry
Sugarberry is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to the southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico, commonly grown as a shade tree. It thrives in moist, well-drained soil and is well suited to urban planting.
Celtis laevigata is a medium-sized tree native to North America. Common names include sugarberry, southern hackberry, or in the southern U.S. sugar hackberry or just hackberry.
Sugarberry is easily confused with common hackberry (C. occidentalis) where the range overlaps. Sugarberry has narrower leaves with mostly smooth margins, the berries are juicier and sweeter, while the bark is less corky. The species can also be distinguished by habitat: where the ranges overlap, common hackberry occurs primarily in upland areas, whereas sugarberry occurs mainly in bottomland areas.
Sugarberry mixed with hackberry supplies the lumber known as hackberry. Small amounts are used for dimension stock, veneer, and containers, but the main use of sugarberry wood is for furniture. The light-colored wood can be given a light- to medium-brown finish that in other woods must be achieved by bleaching. The wood is also used to produce sporting goods and plywood.
Sugarberry is frequently planted as a shade-tree within its range. It is well-adapted to urban areas; its elm-like shape and warty bark make it an attractive landscape tree.
Sugarberry occurs primarily along streams and in moist soils on floodplains. Its sweetish fruit is eaten by birds and rodents, helping to disperse the seeds. The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, for example caterpillars of the Io moth (Automeris io).
Nettle Tree · Caucasian hackberry · Julian Hackberry · Common hackberry · Netleaf hackberry · Tala · Nilgiri Elm · Hackberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Celtis laevigata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
