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Celtis laevigata Willd.

Sugarberry

Modern name

Celtis laevigata Willd.

Synonyms

C. mississippiensis Bosc

A tree 60 to 80 ft high in its native country, with a trunk 6 to 9 ft in girth; young shoots soon glabrous. Leaves 3 in. long, 114 in. wide; lanceolate or oval-lanceolate; rounded or wedge-shaped, unequal and three-nerved at the base; long and taper-pointed; margins entire or nearly so; dark green, and soon quite glabrous above, paler beneath, with scattered hairs on the veins and tufts of down in the vein-axils; stalks at first downy then glabrous, 14 to 12 in. long. Fruit egg-shaped, 14 in. long, orange-red.

Native of the southern United States; very rare in cultivation. There are two trees at Kew, raised from seed sent by Prof. Sargent in 1877, which both now measure about 40 × 414 ft (1967). It is distinct from all other cultivated species by its leaves being without teeth or with only a few.

var. smallii (Beadle) Sarg. C. smallii Beadle – A smaller tree than the type, with sharply toothed leaves, found in the S.E. United States. There is an example at Kew measuring 45 × 412 ft (1967).



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The oldest tree at Kew, pl. 1877, measures 42 × 434 (1981). Another, at Wakehurst Place, Sussex, is 42 × 312 ft (1981). The example of the var. smallii at Kew, pl. 1912, measures 41 × 5 ft (1981).

Genus

Celtis

Other species in the genus