{"id":19874,"date":"2022-08-11T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=19874"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:21:37","slug":"intro-to-trees-hackberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/intro-to-trees-hackberry\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro to Trees: Hackberry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"drawing<\/a>The classic and trusted book “Fifty Common Trees of Indiana” by T.E. Shaw was\u00a0published in 1956 as a user-friendly guide to local species.\u00a0\u00a0Nearly 70 years later, the publication has\u00a0been updated through a joint effort by the Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources,\u00a0Indiana 4-H<\/a>, and\u00a0the\u00a0Indiana Department of Natural Resources<\/a>, and reintroduced as “An Introduction to Trees of Indiana.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0full publication<\/a>\u00a0is available for download for $7 in the Purdue Extension Education Store. The field guide helps identify common Indiana woodlot trees.<\/p>\n

Each week, the Intro to\u00a0Trees of Indiana web\u00a0series will offer a sneak peek at one species from the book, paired with an\u00a0ID That Tree video from Purdue Extension forester\u00a0Lenny Farlee<\/a>\u00a0to help visualize each species as it stands in the woods.\u00a0Threats to species\u00a0health\u00a0as well as\u00a0also\u00a0insight into the wood provided by the species, will be provided\u00a0through additional resources as well as the\u00a0Hardwoods of the Central Midwest<\/a>\u00a0exhibit of the Purdue Arboretum, if available.<\/p>\n

This week, we introduce the hackberry or Celtis occidentalis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This species is easily identified by its single-tooth margined leaves, which are lopsided with one side slightly higher than the other at the base of the twig. The gray, ashy bark is often warty\/bumpy with smooth spots in between, although it may be fairly smooth like beech with warts and ridges spaced throughout. Many hackberries have clumps of distorted twigs in their tops call witch\u2019s brooms. The fruit of the hackberry are small hard black berries, which are favored by birds.<\/p>\n

The leaves of hackberry may be confused with elm at first glance, due to their sandpapery texture, but elms have doubly toothed margins with smaller teeth on top of the large teeth, unlike the single tooth appearance of hackberry. The leaves are often deteriorating late in the growing season after being attacked by a variety of insects.<\/p>\n

Hackberry is often found along fence rows and field edges, but also may be found in the interior woodlands. This species prefers moist, well-drained soils, but will row on limestone outcrops and other droughty areas. It is native to the Midwest and upper eastern United States, ranging from the Great Plains to the east coast and from the Great Lakes states to central Tennessee and Arkansas.<\/p>\n