Hackberry (Celtic occidentalis)

Size: 40′ tall with wide canopy spread

Flowering: inconcpicuous

Fruiting: autumn

Birds: late-fall migrants, and into winter species such as cedar waxwing, yellow-bellied sapsucker, mockingbird, purple finch, and robin.

Hackberry is a 40-60′ tall tree with a 30′ spread. This tree can attain very large proportions, usually reaching 40′-60′ tall. When grown in the open, it develops a short bole and a large rounded crown. A native North American tree that is widely distributed in the east, and the Great Plains, Hackberry prefers full sun to partial shade, grows in a variety of soils, and is very draught tolerant. Hackberry fruit is a round drupe with a thin, sweet, edible pulp enclosing a bony, cream-colored nutlet. The fruit, which is usually variable in size, form and color is dark orange or red to dark purple or black in color. The fruit persists though the winter, but most are consumed or fall off by the spring by some of the 25+ species of birds that feed on it, including cedar waxwing, yellow-bellied sapsucker, mockingbird, robin, and others.