Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Celtis occidentalis L., elm family
Other names	Common hackberry, sugarberry, nettletree, beaverwood, northern hackberry and American hackberry (Silvics)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Mature size, Silvics	Usually 9 to 15 m (30 to 50 ft) tall and 46 to 61 cm (18 to 24 in) in diameter; on the best sites up to 40 m (130 ft) and 122 cm (48 in)
Lifespan, Silvics	Maximum age probably between 150 and 200 years
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	50 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range and sites

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 2, 1990) calls hackberry a widespread small to medium-size tree. It records a range in the eastern United States from the southern New England states through central New York and southern Ontario to North and South Dakota, with northern outliers in southern Quebec, western Ontario, southern Manitoba and southeastern Wyoming. To the south the range runs from western Nebraska to northeastern Colorado and northwestern Texas, then east to Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina, with scattered occurrences in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Because sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) is so similar, the handbook says the exact range of either species in the South has been hard to set, with hackberry probably restricted to upland and sugarberry occupying the bottom land.

The handbook says that on good bottom-land soils hackberry grows fast, and that the tree is planted as a street tree in midwest cities because of its tolerance of a wide range of soil and moisture conditions. It adds that the cherrylike fruits often hang on the tree through the winter and feed many birds.

Growth and size

Silvics gives diameter growth of as much as 8 mm (0.3 in) a year on better alluvial soils, though usually much less, and 5 mm (0.2 in) in the western part of the range. Growth is usually most rapid between the 20th and 40th year, and on poor sites growth is very slow and trees are often dwarfed. The handbook records trees up to 29 m (95 ft) tall and 122 cm (48 in) in diameter in the western part of the range.

Roots

Hackberry is described as a deep-rooting species, reaching depths between 3 and 6 m (10 and 20 ft) on most sites. On clay prairie soil in North Dakota, roots reached only 1.4 m (4.5 ft) deep, with lateral extension of 12.6 m (41.5 ft). The handbook says strong taproots develop only occasionally.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) says hackberry and sugarberry supply the lumber known in the trade as hackberry. It says hackberry grows east of the Great Plains from Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma northward, except along the Canadian boundary. Sapwood varies from pale yellow to greenish or grayish yellow with darker heartwood, and the wood resembles elm in structure. It calls the lumber moderately heavy, moderately strong in bending, moderately hard to very hard and high in shock resistance but low in stiffness, with high shrinkage but good shape-keeping in drying. Most is cut into lumber, with small amounts for furniture parts, dimension stock and veneer. Silvics says the wood is heavy but soft, of limited commercial importance, and that good grades go to furniture, millwork and some athletic equipment, poor grades to crates and boxes.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.49	0.53
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	6,500	11,000
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	700	880
Moisture content of green wood, percent (Table 4-1)	61 heartwood, 65 sapwood	Not applicable

The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) names these agents by the names it used.

Gall insects. Four gall-producing Pachypsylla species, whose adults pass the winter in bark cracks or ground debris and lay eggs on the leaves in spring. The handbook says the damage is not serious.
Hackberry engraver. Scolytus muticus, which normally attacks only dead or dying branches but has been reported to attack living sapwood and kill the tree.
Witches-broom. Called the most important disease: a rosettelike proliferation of branch tips caused by two agents, a gall mite (Eriophyes) and a powdery mildew (Sphaerotheca phytophila).
Leaf spots. Seven leaf-spot fungi are listed as common, among them Cercospora spegazzinii and Mycosphaerella maculiformis.
Fire and root rot. The handbook says hackberry is highly susceptible to fire damage, which opens the way for wood decay organisms, and that Armillaria mellea grows unaggressively on roots until they die or are injured, then causes extensive root rot.

The guide on reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests, and pests and diseases by country sets out which ones agencies regulate. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.