Outstanding Features:
Adaptability to dry, difficult sites.

Description:
Height: 40-60'
Width: 30-50'
Hardiness Zone: 3a

Common Hackberry is a native tree throughout the upper midwest. This medium sized tree has a broad oval to rounded crown. Leaves are a medium green color. Fall color is greenish yellow. The round fruit is about 3/8" in diameter, purplish brown, and is readily eaten by birds and other wildlife. The bark is gray and has a unique warty texture.

Requirements and Culture:
Adaptable to a broad range of soil conditions. Prefers a moist loam soil but tolerates both wet and dry sites. Tolerates drought and hot summer winds. Its adaptability makes it a popular choice for urban plantings.

Limitations:
Hackberry has no life threatening insect or disease problems, but it is susceptible to several aesthetically unattractive conditions. Witches' brooms (small clusters of twigs growing from a single point on the trunk) are often found in great quantities throughout the tree. Nipple gall causes many wart like growths to develop on the undersides of leaves. The small psyllid insect that emerges can be bothersome if populations become large. May be slow to leaf out and become re-established after transplanting.

Selected Cultivars:

Prairie Pride^TM - has a compact oval crown and dark green foliage. Does not produce witches' brooms. Not thoroughly tested in the upper midwest.

Photo Credit: 1 &; 2 E. Hasselkus.

Minnesota Power | University of Minnesota | Northern States Power Company

---