sugarberry

Photo: Gaberlunzi (Richard Murphy) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Hackberry — thin, sweet, date-like pulp on a hard seed.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Seed, Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Large tree 20–30 m — not containerable

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–8.0 (lime-tolerant)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

South-eastern and south-central United States — Virginia south to Florida, west to Texas and Oklahoma and north up the Mississippi valley to Illinois and Indiana; bottomland woods and floodplains, extending into northern Mexico.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

5–8 yrs

Growth speed

40–70 cm/year — fast, faster than common hackberry on moist bottomland.

Spacing

900 cm (354 in) apart — about 81 m² (872 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 5–10 cm long — narrower and longer-pointed than common hackberry's — with an asymmetric base and a margin that is mostly untoothed or only sparsely toothed near the tip.

Root system

Deep-rooting where soil allows, reaching 3–6 m on good ground, though a strong taproot forms only occasionally; on heavy or poorly drained soils the roots run laterally and stay shallow instead.

Fruit description

Round drupes 6–8 mm across ripening orange-red to blackish-purple; juicier and noticeably sweeter than common hackberry, which is what earns it the name sugarberry.

Propagation

Seed is the standard route — clean the pulp off, then cold stratify moist for 60–90 days at about 4°C before spring sowing, or sow outdoors in autumn and let winter do the chilling.

Pollination

Wind-pollinated and polygamo-monoecious — male, female and perfect flowers all borne on the same tree — so a single specimen sets fruit with no partner needed. No insect pollinators are involved.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.