Photo: Mason Brock, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Dwarf Hackberry

Celtis tenuifolia

Also called Georgia hackberry, upland hackberry, Celtis georgiana.

A small, twisting hackberry for dry, rocky ground, with sweet orange fruit for birds and leaves that feed hackberry emperor caterpillars.

Wildlife valueDrought tolerantRareEdible

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 15–30 ft
USDA zones: 4–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, dry uplands, stream banks, sandy barrens, old fields and edges
Native range: 24 states and the District of Columbia, north to Michigan, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 25
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
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Dwarf hackberry is the small cousin of the common hackberry, a shrub or small tree with dense, twiggy branches that often grows on several short trunks. The two are told apart by leaf and fruit. Dwarf hackberry leaves are smooth-edged except near the tip, and its fruit ripens orange to cherry red. Common hackberry leaves are toothed well below the middle, and its fruit ripens purple to blue-black. Canada lists it as threatened, New Jersey ranks it critically imperiled, and Michigan lists it as a species of special concern. It has been praised as a characterful tree for small gardens, with silvery brown bark and an intricate winter outline. Use it as a small shade tree for a courtyard, a hot corner or a dry, stony bank.

Size, growth and what to expect

Dwarf hackberry grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. A tree at Starhill Forest Arboretum made about 30 feet in 30 years. In a garden expect 15 to 30 feet. The crown spreads 15 to 20 feet. In the wild it often stays a shrub under 15 feet.

Small greenish flowers open in April and May, with the new leaves. The fruit, about a quarter inch across, ripens from August to October with a thin, sweet, edible flesh. It hangs on after the leaves fall, and birds eat it through the winter. Hackberry emperor, tawny emperor and American snout caterpillars feed on the leaves.

It grows wild from southern Ontario and Connecticut south to northern Florida, and west to eastern Kansas and Texas. It is most common in Missouri and Arkansas and from Mississippi to North Carolina.

How to grow Dwarf Hackberry

Dwarf hackberry grows best in full sun and takes part shade. Give it a soil that drains well, moist to dry, and it will grow in sand, gravel or thin soil over limestone. It takes drought once established. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 15 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Clean the pulp off the seed, which keeps for years dry and cold. Sow it outdoors in fall, half an inch deep under a screen. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 120 days first.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer browse young trees where they are thick, so guard the stem with a tube or cage for the first few years. Choose one trunk early for a single-stemmed tree, or let it grow as a clump.

Male and female flowers grow on the same tree and can pollinate each other, so a single tree sets fruit. Nipple galls on the leaves and witches' brooms at the branch tips are common on hackberries, and neither does the tree lasting harm. Powdery mildew, leaf spot and scale can also show up.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (11)