''Celtis laevigata'' is a medium-sized

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Common names include sugarberry, southern hackberry, or in the southern U.S. sugar hackberry or just hackberry. Sugarberry is easily confused with common hackberry ('' C. occidentalis'') where the range overlaps. Sugarberry has narrower leaves with mostly smooth margins, the berries are juicier and sweeter, while the bark is less corky. The species can also be distinguished by habitat: where the ranges overlap, common hackberry occurs primarily in upland areas, whereas sugarberry occurs mainly in bottomland areas. Sugarberry's range extends from the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

west to

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 south to northeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is also found on the island of

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Ecology

Sugarberry occurs primarily along streams and in moist soils on

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

s. Its sweetish fruit is eaten by

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s and rodents, helping to disperse the

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s. The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, for example

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s of the Io moth ('' Automeris io''). Sugarberry's

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

contains allelopathic chemicals that inhibit seed germination and growth in many other plant species.

Cultivation and uses

Sugarberry mixed with hackberry supplies the lumber known as hackberry. Small amounts are used for dimension stock,

veneer Veneer may refer to: Materials * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

, and containers, but the main use of sugarberry wood is for furniture. The light-colored wood can be given a light- to medium-brown finish that in other woods must be achieved by bleaching. The wood is also used to produce sporting goods and

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

.Florida Forest Trees: Sugarberry (''Celtis laevigata'')
Sugarberry is frequently planted as a shade-tree within its range. It is well-adapted to urban areas; its

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

-like shape and warty bark make it an attractive landscape tree.

Gallery

File:Celtis laevigata bark.jpg, Bark File:Celtis laevigata leaf.jpg, Leaf File:Celtis laevigata fruit.jpg, Gall

References

External links

Sugarberry Fact Sheet from Virginia Tech

* RangeMap:

{{Taxonbar">from=Q1529852 laevigata Plants described in 1811 Trees of Bermuda Trees of Northern America">Trees of Bermuda">Plants described in 1811 Trees of Bermuda Trees of Northern America