''Celtis ehrenbergiana'', called the desert hackberry or spiny hackberry, is a plant species that has long been called ''C. pallida'' by many authors, including in the "Flora of North America" database. It is native to

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and to

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

as far south as central

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It grows in dry locations such as deserts, brushlands, canyons, mesas and grasslands. ''Celtis ehrenbergiana'' is the only US species of the genus with thorns. In the US, it is a shrub or small tree up to 3 m (10 feet) tall, with thorns on the branches, although it can grow taller in the tropics. Leaves are small for the genus, less than 3 cm (1.2 inches) long and 2 cm (0.8 inches) wide. Flowers are born in

cymes In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis ( ped ...

of 3–5 flowers.

Drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

s are orange, yellow or red, juicy, egg-shaped, about 7 mm in diameter, and edible by humans and wildlife.Emory, William Hemsley. Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Botany 2(1): 203. 1859.
br>- Davidse, G., M. Sousa Sánchez, S. Knapp & F. Chiang Cabrera. 2014. Saururaceae a Zygophyllaceae. 2(3): ined. In G. Davidse, M. Sousa Sánchez, S. Knapp & F. Chiang Cabrera (eds.) Flora Mesoamericana. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
- Correll, D. S. & M. C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas i–xv, 1–1881. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson.
- Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert 2 vols. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

br>
Southeastern Arizona Wildflowers, Firefly Forest, Celtis ehrenbergiana
/ref> SpinyHackberry Granjeno

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2727396 Flora of Central America Flora of Arizona Flora of Southern America Flora of Florida Flora of Mexico Flora of New Mexico Flora of Texas ehrenbergiana