7. Fruit, × 1.
URTICACEAE
Hackberry. Nettle-tree
Celtis occidentalis L.
HABIT.—A medium-sized tree, 40-60 feet high, with a short, straight trunk 1-2 feet in diameter which branches a few feet from the ground into a few large limbs and many slender, horizontal, zigzag branches, forming a broad, rounded crown.
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 2-4 inches long and one-half as broad; ovate to ovate-lanceolate, oblique at the base, usually long-pointed; coarsely serrate above the entire base; thin; glabrous, light green above, paler beneath, turning light yellow late in autumn; petioles short, slender, hairy.
FLOWERS.—May, with or soon after the leaves; polygamo-monoecious; greenish; inconspicuous; on slender pedicels; the staminate in clusters at the base of the shoot, the pistillate usually solitary in the axils of the upper leaves; calyx greenish, deeply 5-lobed; corolla 0; stamens 5; ovary 1-celled.
FRUIT.—September-October, remaining on the tree through the winter; slender-stalked, fleshy, globular drupes, 1/4 inch long, dark purple; edible.
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds light brown, 1/4 inch long, ovoid, acute, flattened, the tip appressed.