Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

NETLEAF HACKBERRY

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Celtis reticulata Torr.

Cimarron National Grassland, Morton County, Kansas

Height: Shrubs or trees, to 23+ feet

Family: Cannabaceae - Hemp Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Trunks:

Stems or trunk ascending; bark light gray to gray, furrows irregular, deep, ridges short, prominently corky or warty; wood white to light yellow, soft.

Twigs:

Reddish brown, flexible, villous; leaf scars half-round; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .12 to .16 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales minutely pubescent.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, simple; stipules caducous, lanceolate, .16 to .2 inch; petiole .12 to .3 inch; blade asymmetric, ovate to triangular-ovate, .8 to 2.8 inches long, .6 to 1.6 inch wide, thick, base cordate, oblique, margins sparsely serrate in distal half, more or less antrorsely ciliate, apex acute to short-acuminate, lower surface grayish green, hirsute, upper surface green to yellowish green, glabrous or scabrous.

Flowers:

Staminate inflorescences: axillary at base of new shoots, fascicles, 2-3-flowered or flowers solitary; pedicels .2 to .3 inch; pistillate inflorescences: axillary toward tip of new shoots, fascicles, 2-flowered or flowers solitary; pedicels .24 to .28 inch. Flowers mostly unisexual, few bisexual, radially symmetric; staminate flowers: sepals 4(-5), distinct, ovate, .08 to .12 inch, petals absent; stamens 4(-5); pistillate flowers: sepals 4(-5), connate proximally, calyx lobes ovate, .08 to .3 inch; pistil 1; style 1; stigmas 2.

Fruit:

August-September; drupes, orange to reddish brown or red, globose, .3 to .4 inch, glabrous; stone 1, cream-colored, globose, ca. .2 to .24 inch, irregularly marked with a network pattern.

Habitat:

Dry limestone slopes, rock outcrops, ravines, canyons.

Distribution:

West 2/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Celtis reticulata is sometimes mistaken for Celtis occidentalis or Celtis pumila. It can usually be distinguished from those two species by its relatively smaller, thicker leaves with margins entire or only distally serrate.

Netleaf hackberry habit