Common Hackberry
A familiar Kansas creek-and-street tree becomes unmistakable at arm’s length: corky bark ridges, sandpapery three-veined leaves with crooked bases, and dark winter fruit crowded with birds.
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Common Hackberry grows along Kansas streams, woodland edges, fencerows, rocky slopes, and city streets. A mature Celtis occidentalis trunk develops irregular corky knobs and ridges; leaves are often rough above, uneven at the base, and organized around three strong veins rising near the petiole.
Small Common Hackberry drupes mature from orange-red to dark purple and may persist into a Kansas winter, feeding birds after softer fruit disappears. Nipple galls are made by tiny psyllids and rarely threaten an established tree, so read them as supporting ecology—not a reason for pesticide treatment.
- Bark
- Gray with irregular corky knobs and ridges
- Leaf
- Rough surface, uneven base, and three strong basal veins
- Fruit
- Small dark drupes persisting into winter
Quick guide
- Begin at the trunk
- Compare corky ridges with the plated or furrowed bark of nearby trees
- Confirm above and below
- Photograph leaf base, veins, fruit, crown, and growing site
Confirm Common Hackberry from trunk to winter fruit
- Start with a Kansas trunk
- Look for Common Hackberry gray bark broken into corky warts, knobs, and short ridges rather than the long regular plates of a nearby ash or elm.
- Read one complete Hackberry leaf
- Choose a naturally reachable or fallen leaf and notice its rough upper surface, finely toothed margin, uneven base, and three prominent veins arising near the petiole.
- Add Kansas fruit and bird use
- Look for pea-sized Common Hackberry drupes changing from orange-red to dark purple and check fallen fruit beneath the crown.
- Treat nipple galls as ecology
- Notice nipple-shaped galls on Common Hackberry leaves and compare affected foliage with healthy crown growth.
Good to know
Read Common Hackberry’s corky Kansas bark and crooked three-veined leaf before the conspicuous gall. Nipple galls reveal a tree–psyllid relationship, but the gall alone is not a Celtis occidentalis diagnosis.
Notice these
- Corky knobby gray bark
- Uneven rough three-veined leaf
- Small persistent purple drupes
- Common psyllid nipple galls