It’s the Tree of the Month for February 2025!

Hackberry, Common Hackberry, American Hackberry, Sugarberry

Celtis occidentalis

Hackberry (Celtis) stands out as a common and recognizable tree in Ohio, yet many people are unfamiliar with it. Its distinctive bark and peculiar witches’ brooms make it an especially interesting sight on winter walks.

Like most trees in Ohio, Hackberry features alternate leaves and branches, which means they are arranged in a staggered pattern—left, right, left, right—rather than growing directly across from one another. The leaves are simple, attaching directly to permanent twigs and branches. In contrast, compound leaves consist of three or more leaflets sharing a stem, which trees shed after just one year, at least among deciduous species. Hackberry leaves display pinnate venation, with a single primary vein and secondary veins branching off at various points along its length. Palmately veined leaves, by comparison, have multiple veins originating from the base, much like fingers extending from the palm of a hand.

Hackberry leaves consist of 2- to 5-inch long, 1.5- to 2.5-inch wide, pointed ovals. Like other members of the elm family, Hackberry’s toothed leaves are somewhat lopsided, and often curve to one side. Especially common in fall and winter is the presence of so-called nipple gall, which contain the eggs of the leaf-eating members of the genus Pachypsylla. By all accounts, the galls don’t do serious damage. Hackberry leaves turn brown in winter. 

Hackberry Features

Hackberry flowers are small, green, and lack petals. Some trees are dioecious, and have male and female flowers on separate trees. Many trees are monoecious, having male and female flowers on the same tree, or “perfect” flowers, with male and female parts in the same flower.  But Hackberries are polygamo-monoecious – they have male, female, and perfect flowers on the same tree. 

Fruit

Hackberry produces small, pea-sized fruits called drupes, each containing a hard pit with a fleshy covering. These fruits measure between 0.25 and 0.4 inches in diameter and turn dark purple in the fall. Somewhat sweet and edible, they once served as a sugar substitute when sweeteners were scarce. Today, birds consume them more often than people.

Bark

Hackberry’s most distinctive feature is its bark, especially in middle-aged trees and branches. The bark is smooth with prominent ridges, which some compare to wax running down a candle. As the tree ages, the bark becomes scaly. As is the case with Sycamore, because the bark changes character with age, it’s important to look at the whole tree. The characteristic warty bark is present at eye level on middle-aged trees, but it tends to be 10 or 20 feet higher on mature trees. 

Witches’ Broom

The other distinctive marker of Hackberry is the witch’s broom, present on, perhaps, half of the trees in Central Ohio. Witches’ brooms are spidery growths of twigs that occur as a response to viral or fungal attacks. Witches’ brooms, when present, make Hackberries recognizable from a distance even in the dead of winter. The origin of the term “witch” in association with Hackberry is unclear. Some sources indicate that “witch” is a variation on “wythe”, a slender twig, like those used for water-witching. Furthermore, the origin of the name “Hackberry” is uncertain, but it might be because its fruits resemble those of Hagberry (Prunus padus), a type of cherry native to Europe and Asia. 

Mature Hackberry trees typically have a height of 50 to 90 feet and a trunk diameter of approximately 2.5 feet. Ohio’s Champion Hackberry, located in Hancock County, has a height of 90 feet, a trunk diameter of 7.6 feet, and a crown width of 89 feet. Hackberry trees can live for up to 200 years. 

Similar species: Hackberry resembles Celtis laevigata, more often called Sugarberry, and their ranges overlap, but Sugarberry is a more southern tree and usually doesn’t occur in Ohio. Sugarberry leaves often lack teeth and have less corky bark, but they’re similar enough that the boundary is hard to determine. 

ID Summary: Slightly lopsided, pointed oval leaf. Ridged bark, commonly witches’ brooms, pea-sized berries. 

Prevalence and Range

Hackberry is common in the U.S. Midwest, Central Plains, and Northeast. It grows in a variety of conditions, including urban environments, but generally does better in limey soils with partial or complete sunlight. Hackberry is drought tolerant. Lucy Braun’s The Woody Plants of Ohio indicates that Hackberry occurs in most of Ohio’s 88 counties, but is absent in part of northeastern Ohio, perhaps because of the presence of sandy bedrock (and absence of lime).

John Laird Farrar’s Trees in Canada points out that Hackberry trees are common in Point Pelee on the north shore of Lake Erie, and suggests that Hackberry seeds might be carried there by birds. Point Pelee is the nearest land for birds migrating north from Ohio, and is a birdwatcher’s hot spot during migration season. 

Uses

Woodworking

Hackberry lumber has a Janka hardness of 880 lbf and a density of 0.60 g/cc, according to the Wood Database, compared to the median of my list of 73 Ohio trees of 1,075 lbf and 0.64 g/cc. Hackberry has low durability (rot-resistance) and is subject to insect and fungal attack. The wood is relatively easy to work with, and takes glues and stains well, but it’s usually not used for quality furniture. It is instead used for lower-cost furniture, pallets, and sometimes veneers. The tree’s wood also responds very well to steam bending.

Landscaping

Hackberry trees adapt well to urban conditions, and are suitable for landscaping. The city of Montreal has over 10,000 C. occidentalis trees, according to Wikipedia. Common Hackberry is the 22nd most common tree in Columbus, Ohio, according to the Columbus Street Tree Inventory, and accounts for slightly over 1% of the City’s trees. Despite this, the tree is not particularly well regarded.

Indigenous use

According to the Native American Ethnobotany Database, the Dakota, Houma, Iroquois, Western Keres, Kiowa, Meskwaki, Omaha, and Pawnee all included hackberry fruit in their diets. The Houma and Iroquois used a decoction of bark to treat sore throats. Additionally, the Houma used a bark decoction mixed with powdered shells to treat STDs, and, the Iroquois used Hackberry to induce abortions. 

Fauna

Hackberry leaves house and feed several species of Pachypsylla, which form galls on the underside of the leaves. The galls can be quite numerous, but typically cause minimal damage to the tree. The Hackberry Emperor butterfly (Asterocampa) lays its eggs exclusively on various species of Hackberry, where the larvae feed on its leaves. Birds, especially Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla) and various woodpeckers eat the fruits, as do some squirrels. 

Because Hackberry bends easily, people once cut it into thin strips and fashioned it into barrel hoops. This characteristic earned it the name “Hoop Ash,” a term also used for Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra). Craftsmen also used both woods to make baskets.

Family Matters

Hackberry leaves and wood are similar to those of elm, and both were formerly in the family Ulmaceae. More recent molecular studies indicate a closer similarity to Cannabis, so hackberries have been reclassified as members of the family Cannabaceae. 

Hackberry does not receive widespread use or recognition, but its distinctive bark and frequent witches’ brooms make it an interesting sight, especially during the winter, when its features make it stand out more noticeably.