Seeds and cuttings I collect around North Carolina, what they turned out to be, and how to grow them for a NC Piedmont native-plant nursery.
Celtis laevigata · Cannabaceae
Warty-barked floodplain tree of the Piedmont bottoms. Sweet orange drupes, and seed that all but grows itself.
Community photos of Celtis laevigata to study before I head out: leaf, flower or bract, ripe fruit, bark, whole plant.
Sugarberry is the common, widespread large hackberry of the NC Piedmont bottomlands; common hackberry (C. occidentalis) is scattered/uncommon here and more frequent in the mountains and upper Piedmont uplands; dwarf hackberry (C. tenuifolia / pumila) is rare on basic rock outcrops
Best bet: Hand-strip ripe drupes, soak overnight and rub the thin pulp off the pits on a screen, floating away pulp and empty seeds. Cold-moist stratify cleaned pits in damp sand or perlite at about 40°F (5°C) for 60–90 days, with up to 120 d giving better germination, then sow about 1/2 in deep in spring. Germination is good and the seedlings robust. Fall-sowing cleaned pits in a protected outdoor bed lets winter do the stratifying instead. No scarification or acid treatment needed.
A tough Piedmont native that thrives in heavy clay and takes periodic flooding, drought once established, compaction and heat (zone 7b/8a). Not invasive, but fast and free-seeding, so expect volunteers. Brittle wood makes it a poor choice near anything it could fall on. Cosmetic hackberry nipple-gall and, mainly on C. occidentalis, witches'-broom don't threaten tree health.
Each look-alike with the one character that settles it. Tap a photo to zoom.
Leaves broader and clearly serrate along most of the margin, where sugarberry's are narrower and mostly entire. An upland species, uncommon in the Piedmont
A twiggy shrub to small tree with broad sandpapery leaves, often subcordate at the base, restricted to rocky and basic outcrops. Never a big bottomland canopy tree
Leaves doubly serrate with strictly pinnate venation rather than 3 veins from the base, and fruit a flat papery samara ripening in spring instead of a fall drupe
Sharply double-toothed leaves and dry spring samaras, with corky wings on winged elm twigs. No fleshy drupe and no smooth warty bark
Hackberries read as an elm that isn't an elm. Start in the bottomlands. Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) is the common large hackberry of the NC Piedmont, hugging stream banks, river floodplains, and moist alluvial flats, and turning up on mesic fencerows and disturbed edges over heavy soil. Fastest lock-on is the bark: pale gray, mostly smooth, studded with corky warts and short ridges unlike anything else in the woods. From September into November the crown carries small orange-red to purplish-brown drupes and turns a soft pale yellow, both easy to catch against a still-green understory.
Sep–Nov, taking only fully colored drupes, orange-red deepening to purplish-brown. Green summer fruit is immature and germinates poorly, so a July pass is wasted effort. Soak the drupes overnight and rub the thin pulp off the pits on a screen, floating away pulp and empty seeds. The pits have innate dormancy, so cold-moist stratify in damp sand or perlite at about 40°F for 60–90 days; up to 120 d gives very high germination. Then sow roughly a half-inch deep in spring. Germination is good and the seedlings vigorous. The other option is to fall-sow cleaned pits into a protected outdoor bed and let winter do the work. No scarification or acid treatment needed.
Around Roxboro and Person County, work the floodplains and shorelines of Mayo Lake Park and Hyco Lake and the Hyco and Dan River bottoms. Farther south, the Eno River State Park floodplain in Durham and Orange counties is reliable hackberry ground, and nearby Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, with its mafic and basic slopes, is my best local bet for the rarer dwarf hackberry. Falls Lake bottomland edges round out the list. Moist, disturbed alluvial ground is where sugarberry concentrates.