446 Vescovo Dr.
Sugar Hackberry (Celtis laevigata)
Celtis laevigata is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to North America. Common names include sugarberry, Southern hackberry, or in the southern U.S. sugar hackberry or just hackberry. It can grow 50-70 feet tall and is fast growing with a rounded vase crown. The hackberry is a good shade tree perfect for urban yards as it thrives in full sun to partial shade. It. tolerates salt, periodic flooding, urban pollution and drought. It is tolerant of soil compaction, making it useful in parking lot islands and medians in addition to using as a shade tree for your home or naturalized area.
The sugar hackberry’s sweetish fruit matures to red or purple, and is popular with squirrels and winter birds, especially the cedar waxwing, mockingbird and robin, helping to disperse the seeds. The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, for example caterpillars of the lo moth. The tree also a great host plant for butterflies.
Sugar hackberry supplies the lumber known as hackberry, which is primarily used for furniture, as well as to produce sporting goods and plywood. It is well-adapted to urban areas; its elm-like shape and warty bark make it an attractive landscape tree.
In earlier times, the hackberry’s tough, flexible wood was used for barrel hoops, and many a pioneer cabin was equipped with durable hackberry wood flooring.