An often-overlooked tree with remarkable resilience and wildlife value
September 2026
by Steve Carroll, Contributing Columnist
Common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) is one of our region’s most common forest trees, yet it often goes unrecognized. Nonetheless, if you spend time outdoors, you’ve no doubt walked by many a specimen. Hackberry grows best in nutrient-rich floodplain and alluvial soils, but it’s also common in drier sites such as old fields and along fencerows. Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), a close relative, overlaps in its distribution but is more common to the South. The genus Celtis has been classified in a variety of ways over the years, but Flora of Virginia currently places it in the hemp family, alongside hemp and marijuana.
Hackberry grows relatively quickly and may reach 40 to 60 feet in height and width on an average site, with a trunk diameter of 2 feet. Under ideal conditions, it may reach 120 feet tall or more, and if growing in the open, it often develops an attractive, spreading crown.
For those wishing to identify hackberry, the bark offers one of the most useful traits. The gray to dark brown bark on mature trees is generally characterized by distinctive corky warts and ridges. I say generally because hackberry shows significant variation of this and many other traits, depending on geographic location, site conditions, hybridization with sugarberry and other factors.
Hackberry’s finely toothed leaves develop in an alternate pattern along the stem and are 2 to 5 inches long and 1½ to 2 inches wide. They have pointed tips and, like elm and basswood, have an asymmetrical base in which the two halves of the leaf blade meet the leaf stem unevenly. The leaves typically turn a pale yellow in autumn. During the growing season, leaves are fed on by eastern comma, hackberry emperor and mourning cloak caterpillars, as well as various butterflies.
Caterpillars of the hackberry emperor butterfly feed on hackberry leaves. (Melissa McMasters photo via Flickr)
Hackberry flowers often go unnoticed. The tiny, light-green blossoms form in the spring, with separate male and female flowers on the same tree. Though primarily wind-pollinated, flowers do provide pollen and nectar to visiting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. The round, dark purple fruits are more evident, even at only one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in diameter. These short-stalked drupes (fleshy fruits surrounding a pit with a single seed) are botanically comparable to peaches and cherries. Hackberry fruits typically remain on the tree into winter and are eaten by numerous birds and mammals. The fruit can be used to make jelly and wine, although the small amount of sweet flesh on a single fruit makes this a rather labor-intensive task.
Hackberry wood has been used for making barrel hoops, fence posts, boxes and crates. And because it tolerates periodic flooding, it can be planted in rain gardens and bioswales. Because of its resistance to environmental stresses such as drought and wind, it has also been planted as a street tree.
Botanist Larry Mellichamp had this to say about sugarberry in “Native Plants of the Southeast,” although it might also be said about hackberry: “These are weedy, unkempt trees with little of beauty, but the bark — oh, the bark.” I might quibble with the “little of beauty” crack, but the bark, yes. Oh, the bark! And should you wish a personal reflection about this oft-overlooked tree, read Hope Jahren’s poignant essay, “My Father’s Hackberry Tree,” published Aug. 6, 2016, in the The New York Times.
Perhaps the hackberry’s greatest virtue is that it rewards those who take the time to look a little closer.
Steve Carroll is a botanist and ecologist who writes about trees, gardening and the world of plants. He is the co-author of “Ecology for Gardeners,” published by Timber Press.
Hackberry’s distinctive bark (James St. John photo via Flickr)