Photo: Richard Murphy, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sugarberry

Celtis laevigata

Also called sugar hackberry, southern hackberry, lowland hackberry, Texas sugarberry, palo blanco, Celtis mississippiensis.

The hackberry of southern bottomlands, a fast shade tree for wet or dry ground, with warty gray bark and sweet fruit that birds eat into winter.

Wildlife valueDrought tolerantTolerates wet soilEdibleTolerates shadeWinter interestStreet tree

Type: Large tree
Mature height: 50–80 ft
USDA zones: 5–10
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, old fields and edges
Native range: 20 states and the District of Columbia, north to Ohio, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 21
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
Also recorded in 10 other states, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Sugarberry is the southern cousin of common hackberry, a broad shade tree of river bottoms and clay flats. Next to common hackberry its leaves are narrower with mostly smooth edges, its fruit is juicier and sweeter, and its bark is less corky. At least 10 kinds of birds eat the fruit. Hackberry emperor, tawny emperor and American snout caterpillars feed on the leaves. Some southern cities plant it on their streets, and others ban it. Ohio, at the north edge of its range, lists it as endangered. In winter the bare tree shows off silvery bark dotted with warts. Plant it as a shade tree for a big lawn, a park or a wide street strip.

Size, growth and what to expect

Sugarberry grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator. Expect 50 to 80 feet with a crown 50 to 80 feet wide. Forest trees often reach 80 to 100 feet, but few live past 150 years.

Small greenish flowers open with the new leaves, from March to May depending on latitude. The fruit, a quarter to half an inch across, ripens orange-red to deep purple in September and October and often hangs on until midwinter. Trees bear at about 15 years and give good crops most years. Wild turkeys favor the sweet fruit in fall and winter.

It grows wild from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida and central Texas, and north to southern Kansas, southern Illinois and western Kentucky. Some references count the West's netleaf hackberry as a variety of sugarberry, so its range map runs to Washington.

How to grow Sugarberry

Sugarberry grows best in full sun on moist, fertile soil, and it takes part shade. It grows in clay, sand or loam, and once established it stands drought. It takes wet ground and brief flooding, though its seedlings do not stand flooding. Avoid very alkaline soil, where the leaves turn yellow. Plant it 30 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 40 feet apart. Keep it away from patios and walks, where the dropped fruit makes a mess.

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. Rub the pulp off the seed, which stores dry and cold. Sow it outdoors in fall, half an inch deep under a bird screen. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first.

Water weekly through the first summer. Prune several times over the first 15 years to keep one leader and avoid weak forks. The wood seals off wounds poorly and rots behind them, so keep mowers off the bark and never cut big limbs from the trunk.

Sugarberry carries male and female flowers on the same tree, with a few that carry both parts, and the wind pollinates it, so one tree bears alone. Nipple galls on the leaves are common and do no harm, and it resists witches' broom. Watch for the Asian woolly hackberry aphid and scale. Mistletoe favors it, and ice storms break its limbs.

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

Sources (13)