Celtis reticulata | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Cannabaceae |
Genus: | Celtis |
Species: | C. reticulata |
Binomial name | |
Celtis reticulata | |
Natural range of Celtis reticulata |
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 deciduous tree native to western North America. [5] [6]
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]
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.
Celtis reticulata was one of the species analyzed in a pollen core sampling study in northern Arizona, in which the early to late Holocene flora association was reconstructed; this study in the Waterman Mountains (Pima County, Arizona) demonstrated that C. reticulata was found to be present after the Wisconsinan glaciation, but is not a current taxon of this former Pinyon–juniper woodland area which is now in central and northern Arizona. [12]
At its western edge, the tree's natural range includes the Columbia River Basin of Oregon, Washington, and western Idaho. [13] It can also be found in Southern California in the southwestern Sierra Nevada foothills, the Peninsular Ranges and eastern Transverse Ranges, and the Mojave Desert sky islands. [9]
Its central range includes the Rio Grande watershed and the Chihuahuan Desert in southern Arizona and New Mexico, western Texas, and northern Sonora-Chihuahua-Coahuila. It is also found in the Madrean Sky Islands of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northern Sonora, and in the White Mountains and along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. The banks of the Colorado River also provide suitable habitat, from the Grand Canyon northeast through Utah to western Colorado. [6]
Its easternmost natural range is in the hills of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Louisiana. [13]
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]
The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, particularly certain moth caterpillars. 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]
Celtis reticulata is cultivated by plant nurseries and available as an ornamental plant for native plant, drought-tolerant, natural landscape, and habitat gardens, and for ecological restoration projects. [15]
The berries and seeds have long been used as a food source by Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, including the Apache (Chiricahua and Mescalero), both fresh and preserved, [16] and the Navajo, who eat them both fresh and ground. [17]
Celtis is a genus of about 60–70 species of deciduous trees, commonly known as hackberries or nettle trees, widespread in warm temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The genus is part of the extended Cannabis family (Cannabaceae).
Prunus virginiana, commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry, is a species of bird cherry native to North America.
Robinia neomexicana, the New Mexican, New Mexico, Southwest, desert, pink, or rose locust, is a shrub or small tree in the subfamily Faboideae of the family Fabaceae.
Frangula californica is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family native to western North America. It produces edible fruits and seeds. It is commonly known as California coffeeberry and California buckthorn.
Parkinsonia microphylla, the yellow paloverde, foothill paloverde or little-leaved palo verde; syn. Cercidium microphyllum), is a species of palo verde.
Celtis occidentalis, commonly known as the common hackberry, is a large deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the nettletree, sugarberry, beaverwood, northern hackberry, and American hackberry. It is a moderately long-lived hardwood with a light-colored wood, yellowish gray to light brown with yellow streaks.
Phoradendron is a genus of mistletoe, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Americas. The center of diversity is the Amazon rainforest. Phoradendron is the largest genus of mistletoe in the Americas, and possibly the largest genus of mistletoes in the world. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in the family Viscaceae, but recent genetic research acknowledged by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group shows this family to be correctly placed within a larger circumscription of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae.
Celtis laevigata is a medium-sized tree native to North America. Common names include sugarberry, southern hackberry, or in the southern U.S. sugar hackberry or just hackberry.
Celtis lindheimeri, also called Lindheimer's hackberry, is a species of tree in the family Cannabaceae. It is typically found in areas of central Texas and northeastern Mexico. It has a height averaging 9 meters, and produces a reddish-brown berry. It is a species closely related to netleaf hackberry which is common in western United States. The Spanish common name is "palo blanco", meaning "white tree", which is commonly used to identify this tree. It is named after its discoverer Ferdinand Lindheimer, a German-born botanical collector and Texas newspaper editor.
Forestiera is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. Members of the genus are often called swampprivets. Most are shrubs.
Psorothamnus spinosus, or Delea spinosa, is a perennial legume tree of the deserts in North America. Common names include smokethorn, smoketree, smoke tree, smokethorn dalea, and corona de Cristo.
Olneya tesota is a perennial flowering tree of the family Fabaceae, legumes, which is commonly known as ironwood, desert ironwood, or palo fierro in Spanish. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Olneya. This tree is part of the western Sonoran Desert in Mexico and United States.
Condalia globosa, also called bitter condalia, or bitter snakewood, is a perennial shrub, small tree of the family Rhamnaceae.
Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.
Rhus glabra, the smooth sumac, is a species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae, native to North America, from southern Quebec west to southern British Columbia in Canada, and south to northern Florida and Arizona in the United States and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico.
Ceanothus pauciflorus, known by the common name Mojave ceanothus, is a species of flowering shrub in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It is native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico, where it grows primarily in shrubland communities at moderate to high elevations. It is characterized by oppositely arranged leaves, corky stipules and white flowers. It was formerly known as Ceanothus greggii.
Populus fremontii, commonly known as Frémont's cottonwood, is a cottonwood native to riparian zones of the Southwestern United States and northern through central Mexico. It is one of three species in Populus sect. Aigeiros. The tree was named after 19th-century American explorer and pathfinder John C. Frémont.
Quercus turbinella is a North American species of oak known by the common names shruboak, turbinella oak, shrub live oak, and gray oak. It is native to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the western United States. It also occurs in northern Mexico.
Quercus arizonica, the Arizona white oak, is a North American tree species in the beech family. It is found in Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Durango.
Salix laevigata, the red willow or polished willow, is a species of willow native to the southwestern United States and northern Baja California.