Celtis reticulata, with common names including netleaf hackberry,[2]western hackberry, Douglas hackberry,[3]netleaf sugar hackberry, palo blanco, and acibuche,[4] is a small- to medium-sized deciduoustree native to western North America.[5][6]
Description
Celtis reticulata usually grows to a small-sized tree, 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30 feet) in height and mature at 15 to 35 centimetres (6 to 14 inches) in diameter, although some individuals are known up to 21 m (70 ft) high and 60 cm (24 in) thick.[7] It is often scraggly, stunted or even a large bush.[8] It grows at altitudes of 500–1,700 m (1,600–5,600 ft).[9]
Hackberry bark is gray to brownish gray with the trunk bark forming vertical corky ridges that are checkered between the furrows. The young twigs are puberulent, or covered with very fine hairs. The blade of the leaves can be 2–8 cm (3⁄4–3+1⁄4 in) long, usually about 5–6 cm (2–2+1⁄2 in). They are lanceolate to ovate, disproportionate at the base, leathery, entire to serrate (tending toward serrate), clearly net-veined, base obtuse to more or less cordate, tip obtuse to acuminate, and scabrous, with a dark green upper surface and a yellowish-green lower surface. The small stalks attaching the leaf blade to the stem (the petioles) are generally about 5 to 6 millimetres (3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in) long.
The flowers are very small, averaging 2 mm across. They form singly, or in cymose clusters[10] pedicel in fr 4–15 mm.[clarification needed] The fruit is a rigid, brownish to purple berry, 5 to 12 mm in diameter, with thin, sweet pulp.[11][6] If uneaten, they can stay on the plant through early winter.[7]
Similar species
C. reticulata is often confused with the related species Celtis pallida, the spiny hackberry or desert hackberry,
Celtis occidentalis, the common hackberry, and Celtis laevigata, the sugarberry or southern hackberry.
The species grows in alluvial soils and rocky sites far above the water line. It is very drought tolerant, accepting sites with only 18 cm (7 in) in annual precipitation.[7]
Ecology
The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, particularly certain mothcaterpillars. The berries are eaten by wildlife,[14] including birds. Mule deer and bighorn sheep eat the fresh twigs. Beavers feed on the plant as well.[7]
^Benson, Lyman D. and Darrow, Robert A. (1981) "Celtis: Hackberry, Palo Blanco" Trees and Shrubs of the Southwestern Deserts (3rd edition) University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona, pages 154-155 ISBN0-8165-0591-8
^Jepson, Willis Linn (1993) The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California (edited by James C. Hickman) University of California Press, Berkeley, California, p. 1081, ISBN0-520-08255-9
^Little, Elbert L. (1994) [1980]. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Western Region (Chanticleer Press ed.). Knopf. p. 416. ISBN0394507614.
