Associated Forest Cover
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Sugarberry appears with the following forest cover types (11):
Cottonwood (Society of American Foresters Type 63),
Sweetgurn-Willow Oak (Type 92), Sugarberry-American Elm-Green Ash
(Type 93), Sycamore-Sweetgurn-American Elm (Type 94), Black
Willow (Type 95), and Overcup Oak-Water Hickory (Type 96).
Other tree associates are cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia), winged
elm (U. alata), water oak Quercus nigra), blackgum
(Nyssa sylvatica), persimmon (Diospyros virginiana),
honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos), red maple (Acer
rubrum), and boxelder (A. negundo). Some important
noncommercial tree and shrub associates are swamp-privet (Forestiera
acuminata), roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii), and
hawthorn (Crataegus spp.).
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Climate
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Sugarberry grows in a humid climate except for part of its range
in Oklahoma and Texas which lies west of a north-south line
through Galveston Bay. There the climate is semihumid to
semiarid. The average precipitation varies from 510 to 1520 mm
(20 to 60 in) per year, the lightest being in central Texas and
Oklahoma. An average of 380 to 760 mm (15 to 30 in) occurs during
the frost-free period. Annual snowfall ranges from 0 to 51 cm (0
to 20 in).
Summer temperatures vary from an average of 27° C (80°
F) to extremes of 46° C (115° F). Average winter
temperatures are from -1° to 10° C (30° to 50°
F), with an extreme of -29° C (-20° F).
The average length of the growing season varies from 150 to 270
days.
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Damaging Agents
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The bark is thin and easily injured by
fire. A light burn kills back reproduction. Heavier bums may kill
even the largest trees and wound others, making them subject to
serious butt rot, which in sugarberry advances rapidly. Butt rot
is a common name used to indicate the area of the decay in the
butt log which may be caused by any one of 30 or more species of
fungi belonging to the genera Fomes, Polyporus, Hericium,
and Plyeurotus.
Ice also causes heavy damage to the crowns, breaking the main stem
and branches which reduces growth and creates wounds that allow
entrance of rot-causing fungi. There are some other diseases of
the twigs and leaves, but none are of major importance.
Eastern mistletoe (Phoraedendron flavescens) may cause
serious damage in the western part of its range (7). A number of
scales attack the twigs, small branches, and sometimes the
trunks, but none are considered very damaging. Leaf petiole galls
caused by the hackberry petiole gall maker (Pachypsylla
venusta) are common. In recent years, defoliation of large
acreages in several Southern States by larvae of the hackberry
butterfly (Asterocampa celtis) have been reported (12).
No deaths or crown die-back among the trees was observed in the
following years. Research has shown that the hackberry butterfly
can be controlled by spraying trees with certain registered
insecticides (8).
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Flowering and Fruiting
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The small, greenish flowers appear
with the leaves in the early spring-from mid-March to May,
depending on latitude (1). Sugarberry is polygamo-monoecious. The
fruit ripens in September and October, and often remains on the
trees until midwinter. Sugarberry fruits are spherical drupes 6
to 13 mm (0.25 to 0.5 in) in diameter with a thin pulp enclosing
a single bony nutlet. Late spring frosts sometimes kill the
flowers and reduce the seed crop.
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Genetics
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Sugarberry seems to present a considerable number of local
variations that have prompted some botanists to name a number of
varieties, while other botanists feel the distinctions are too
slight to warrant such status (13).
Some varieties listed are Texas sugar hackberry, C. laevigata
var. texana; Uvalde sugar hackberry, C. laevigata
var. brachyphylla; scrub sugar hackberry, C.
laevigata var. anomala; small sugar hackberry, C.
laevigata var. smallii; Arizona sugar hackberry, C.
laevigata var. brevipes; net-leaf sugar hackberry,
C. laevigata var. reticulata.
There are no known races or hybrids of sugarberry.
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Growth and Yield
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Sugarberry is a small- to medium-sized
tree. It often attains a height of 24 to 30 in (80 to 100 ft) at
maturity. On best sites, 10-year diameter growth can be in excess
of 6 cm (2.5 in) for dominant trees (9). The overall average is
about 2.5 to 5 cm (1 to 2 in) in 10 years. On average sites,
mature forest-grown trees average about 46 cm (18 in) in diameter
and 24 in (80 ft) in height, with trunks clear of branches for
approximately 9 m (30 ft).
An accurate estimate of the total growing stock is available for
only a limited portion of the sugarberry range. Because of its
scattered occurrence, forest surveys usually include sugarberry
in a group of other species with limited frequencies. The only
region containing enough sugarberry of sawtimber size to list
separately is the Mississippi Delta (10). The principal States
producing commercial quantities of sugarberry are Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Arkansas. These States contain about 16 million
m³ (560 million ft³) and about 9.4 million m³
(1,650 million fbm) of sugarberry sawtimber. In 1965, a rough
estimate of the total sawtimber resource in the United States was
in excess of 10.0 million m' (2,000 million fbm).
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Reaction to Competition
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Sugarberry is classed as tolerant
of shade. It grows fast when released and often outgrows more
desirable forest species (5). Sugarberry becomes established in
the understory and generally has very poor form in this
situation. In dense, even-aged stands, however, it prunes itself
well and produces a straight stem.
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Rooting Habit
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Sugarberry is a relatively shallow-rooted
tree and does not develop a distinct taproot. The root system is
saucer-shaped with good lateral root development. The tree is
about average in resistance to windthrow.
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Seed Production and Dissemination
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Seed production starts
when trees are about 15 years old (7). Optimum seed-bearing age
is from 30 to 70 years old. Sugarberry bears good seed crops in
most years and some nearly every year. There are between 4,400
and 5,300 cleaned seeds per kilogram (2,000 to 2,400/lb). The
seed is widely dispersed by birds and water.
Mature fruits can be picked by hand from trees as late as
midwinter. Collection is easier after trees have completely
dropped their leaves. Branches of sugarberry can be flailed to
knock the fruits onto sheets of plastic or other suitable
material spread under the trees.
If seeds are to be used for seedling production in a nursery, then
both fall sowing of untreated seeds and spring sowing of
stratified seeds are satisfactory. Seeds may be broadcast or
drilled in rows and should be covered with 6 to 13 mm (0.25 to
0.5 in) of firmed soil. Beds should be covered with bird screens
until germination starts. Experience at the Southern Hardwoods
Laboratory, Stoneville, MS, has shown that if spring sowing is
used, the seeds should be depulped before storage, dried to 8 to
10 percent moisture content, and stored in 6-mil-thick plastic
bags or equivalent storage containers until stratification. Seeds
should be stratified in moist sand or other suitable media for 60
to 90 days before sowing in the nursery. The seeds can be
depulped by wet maceration. Depulping is not essential, but it
has been reported to aid germination (1). Average germinative
capacity is reported to be 55 percent for sugarberry.
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Seedling Development
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Sugarberry seeds lie dormant over
winter and germinate early in the spring. Germination is epigeal
(1). The seedlings become established under most stands of
southern bottom land hardwoods. Best natural conditions for
germination are moist, loamy soil, but the species is found
mostly on clay soils. First-year growth usually produces a very
slender but tough stem, 20 to 46 cm (8 to 18 in) in height. Under
shade, the young seedling develops a crooked, short stem, often
forked within a few feet of the ground. In the open, it tends to
be very limby and short boled. Sugarberry is considered
intolerant of flooding, at least in the seedling stage (2,3,4).
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Soils and Topography
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Sugarberry is most common on Inceptisols and Entisols found in
broad flats or shallow sloughs within flood plains of major
southern rivers (9), but will grow under a considerable range of
soil and moisture conditions. It is widely distributed on bottom
lands except in deep swamps and is found to a minor extent on
upland sites. It is also common on deep moist soils derived from
limestones, notably in the Black Belt of Alabama (10).
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Special Uses
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Sugarberry mixed with hackberry supplies the lumber known as
hackberry. Small amounts are used for dimension stock, veneer,
and containers, but the main use of sugarberry wood is for
furniture. The light-colored wood can be given a light- to
medium-brown finish that in other woods must be achieved by
bleaching.
The dry sweet fruit is eaten by at least 10 species of birds, as
well as other game and nongame animals (13).
Sugarberry is often used for street planting in the lower South
and is also used as an ornamental in residential areas. A problem
in such use is that leachates from the leaves reduce germination
and growth of a number of grasses under the trees (6). These
leachates have been identified in the soil as ferulic acid,
caffeic acid, and p-coumaric acid.
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Vegetative Reproduction
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Sugarberry can be propagated by
cuttings (7). Small stumps sprout readily, and there is some
sprouting from root collars of fire-damaged seedlings and
saplings.
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Distribution
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Sugarberry ranges south from southeastern Virginia to southern
Florida, west to central Texas and northeastern Mexico, and north
to western Oklahoma, southern Kansas, Missouri, southern
Illinois, southern Indiana, and western Kentucky. It is local in
Maryland, the Rio Grande Valley, and northeastern Mexico. Its
range overlaps the southern part of the range of hackberry (C.
occidentalis).
-The native range of sugarberry.
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Brief Summary
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Ulmaceae -- Elm family
Harvey E. Kennedy, Jr.
Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), a common medium-size tree of
moderate to fast growth, is most often found on clay soils of
broad flats or shallow sloughs within the flood plains of major
southern rivers. It is also called sugar hackberry, hackberry,
Texas sugarberry, southern hackberry, and lowland hackberry.
Sugarberry is short lived, probably not living more than 150
years. The wood is of medium strength and hardness and much of
the light yellow wood is used by furniture manufacturers. The
abundant crops of fruits are eaten by wildlife, especially birds.
The tree is planted as an ornamental and as a street tree in
residential areas in the lower South.
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