Sugar Hackberry

Sugar Hackberry, Celtis laevigata

The native tree Sugar Hackberry has a number of other common names including Texas sugarberry, palo blanco, and sugarberry. While a fast growing, shade and soil tolerant tree often reaching a height of 24 to 30 m (80 to 100 ft), the weak, soft wood, thin bark, and shallow roots contributes to sugar hackberry being a shorter-lived species averaging 150 years. One of the main causes of damage to sugar hackberry is from parasitic mistletoe; however, the wood of sugar hackberry is still used for furniture, flooring, and fencing. In the event of a fire, sugar hackberry will resprout from the root collar.

Canopy and trunk of Sugar Hackberry

Although now more often used for ornamental purposes, sugar hackberry is vastly important to wildlife, and was extremely important to Native Americans and early settlers. For wildlife, the sugar hackberry is a host of a few species of butterflies, provide browse for deer, and a food source for a variety of other mammals and songbirds; raccoons are especially fond of the berries from sugar hackberry. The fruit of the tree was also often consumed by Native American tribes and early settlers, either as a pulp, raw, or roasted. The bark was used to treat sore throats and the leaves and branches used to make brown and red dyes.

This month I'm doing a tour of bark found in North Texas (which includes natives and non-natives). If you would like to try identifying the bark beforehand, I'll be posting the photos first on Google+ each Monday and Wednesday for anyone and everyone to guess.