Alternate name: Common Hackberry

Family: Ulmaceae, Elm view all from this family

Description Tree with rounded crown of spreading or slightly drooping branches, often deformed as bushy growths called witches'-brooms.
Height: 50-90' (15-27 m).
Diameter: 1 1/2-3' (0.5-0.9 m).
Leaves: in 2 rows; 2-5" (5-13 cm) long, 1 1/2-2 1/2" (4-6 cm) wide, Ovate, long-pointed; usually sharply toothed except toward unequal-sided, rounded base; 3 main veins. Shiny green and smooth (sometimes rough) above, paler and often hairy on veins beneath; turning yellow in autumn.
Bark: gray or light brown; smooth with corky warts or ridges, becoming scaly.
Twigs: light brown, slender, mostly hairy, slightly zigzag.
Flowers: 1/8" (3 mm) wide; greenish; male and female at base of young leaves in early spring.
Fruit: 1/4-3/8" (6-10 mm) in diameter; orange-red to dark purple 1-seeded drupes; dry and sweet; slender-stalked at leaf bases; maturing in autumn.

Habitat Mainly in river valleys, also on upland slopes and bluffs in mixed hardwood forests.

Range Extreme S. Ontario east to New England, south to N. Georgia, west to NW. Oklahoma, north to North Dakota; local in S. Quebec and S. Manitoba; to 5000' (1524 m).

Discussion Used for furniture, athletic goods, boxes and crates, and plywood. The common name apparently was derived from "hagberry," meaning "marsh berry," a name used in Scotland for a cherry. Many birds, including quail, pheasants, woodpeckers, and cedar waxwings, consume the sweetish fruits. Branches of this and other hackberries may become deformed bushy growths called witches'-brooms produced by mites and fungi. The leaves often bear rounded galls caused by tiny jumping plant lice.