okay, this is super random and incredibly inconsequential to probably everyone but ive noticed these boulevard trees all over the city that i thought were really interesting looking. i had just assumed they were elm trees, and i wasn’t actually that far off.
celtis occidentalis
these are the leaves;
these are the fruits;
and that is the common hackberry! it is closely related to the elm, but the elm population has been devastated by something called dutch elm disease. this kind of thing actually happens a lot to trees, you may have heard Alexis (blackforager on insta and tiktok) talking about the american chestnut which is critically endangered due to chestnut blight. both of these tree diseases are fungal infections and learning about them is very sad and very interesting.
ANYWAY! the common hackberry has filled the niche left by the elm and it’s a very cool tree. it is incredibly hardy and it grows anywhere east of the rockies from southern canada down to florida! that covers growing zones 3-9
that is most of the united states! of course climate change and infrastructure related fluctuations will continue to effect these growing zones, but such a broad growing range gives the hackberry a potential edge.
the thing that initially caught my eye when i was seeing all of these trees lining the streets was all the bug eggs!
every single specimen was absolutely COVERED in these guys. they’re called “gall” structures and in the hackberry there are several insects that do this. pictured above is an example of a hackberry nipple gall (heehee) which is caused by a kind of plant lice. they’re totally harmless to people and it would seem mostly harmless to the tree as well, in extreme cases these growths can lead to a premature leaf drop.
another weird thing about this tree that makes it stand out is that the fruits don’t always drop when they’re ripe. in fact ive seen entire trees full and drooping with these fruits hanging on through the middle of winter (in minnesota) until they are eaten by the nonmigratory birds that certainly benefit from having a continuous food source through the winter.
but don’t let the birds have all the fun! hackberries are safe for humans to eat and apparently pretty good in jams. some folks even claim hackberries to provide a convincing dupe for grape-nut cereal. why on earth you’d be searching for such a thing absolutely baffles me, but i’ll include a link to that article in the notes!
i will include a couple links in the notes, i’m not able to embed them for some reason, and i’ve had a really fun time reading about this very specific tree species. 😊
