Hackberry Nettle Tree Hoop Ash Sugar Berry

=Habitat and Range.=--In divers situations and soils; woods, river

banks, near salt marshes.



Province of Quebec to Lake of the Woods, occasional.



Maine,--not reported; New Hampshire,--sparingly along the Connecticut

valley, as far as Wells river; Vermont,--along Lake Champlain, not

common; Norwich and Windsor on the Connecticut (Eggleston);

Massachusetts,--occasional throughout the stat ; Rhode Island,--common

(Bailey); Connecticut,--common (J. N. Bishop).



South to the Gulf states; west to Minnesota and Missouri.



=Habit.=--A small or medium-sized tree, 20-45 feet high, with a trunk

diameter of 8 inches to 2 feet; attaining farther south a maximum of 100

feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 4-6 feet; variable; most

commonly the rough, straight trunk, sometimes buttressed at the base,

branches a few feet from the ground, sending out a few large limbs and

numerous slender, horizontal or slightly drooping and more or less

tortuous branches; head wide-spreading, flattish or often rounded, with

deep green foliage which lasts into late autumn with little change in

color, and with cherry-like fruit which holds on till the next spring.



=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in young trees grayish, rough, unbroken, in old

trees with deep, short ridges; main branches corrugated; secondary

branches close and even; branchlets pubescent; season's shoots

reddish-brown, often downy, more or less shining.



=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, acute, scales chestnut

brown. Leaves simple, alternate, extremely variable in size, outline,

and texture, usually 2-4 inches long, two-thirds as wide, thin, deep

green, and scarcely rough above, more or less pubescent beneath, with

numerous and prominent veins, outline ovate to ovate-lanceolate, sharply

serrate above the lower third; apex usually narrowly and sharply

acuminate; base acutish, inequilateral, 3-nerved, entire; leafstalk

slender; stipules lanceolate, soon falling.



=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing with the leaves from the axils of the

season's shoots, sterile and fertile flowers usually separate on the

same tree; flowers slender-stemmed, the sterile in clusters at the base

of the shoot, the fertile in the axils above, usually solitary; calyx

greenish, segments oblong; stamens 4-6, in the fertile flowers about the

length of the 4 lobes, in the sterile exserted; ovary with two long,

recurved stigmas.



=Fruit.=--Drupes, on long slender stems, globular, about the size of the

fruit of the wild red cherry, purplish-red when ripe, thin-meated,

edible, lasting through the winter.



=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all

well-drained soils, but prefers a deep, rich, moist loam. Young trees

grow rather slowly and are more or less distorted, and trees of the same

age often vary considerably in size and habit; hence it is not a

desirable street tree, but it appears well in ornamental grounds. A

disease which seriously disfigures the tree is extending to New England,

and the leaves are sometimes attacked by insects. Occasionally offered

by nurserymen and easily transplanted.






1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower.

4. Fertile flower.

5. Fruiting branch.