Netleaf hackberry

Photo: Stan Shebs — 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.

A desert-country hackberry with sweet, fleshy fruit that dries well and keeps through winter; long used both fresh and pounded into a seasoning for savoury food. Genuinely drought-hardy once established, and untroubled by poor, rocky, alkaline ground.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Seed, Fruit

Ripens

October

Mature size

Slow-growing tree to 12 m, often shorter and gnarled on dry sites

Light

Full sun — will not grow in shade

Soil pH

5.5–8.5 (mildly acid to alkaline) — happy on limestone

Environment

Arid / semi-arid

Native range

South-western North America — Kansas and Oklahoma west to California and north to Oregon and Washington, plus northern Mexico, on dry hills (often limestone or basalt), ravine banks and rocky outcrops at 300–2300 m.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

6–10 yrs from seed

Growth speed

20–40 cm/year — slow, and slower still on the dry rocky ground it favours; long-lived in compensation.

Spacing

600 cm (236 in) apart — about 36 m² (388 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, simple and ovate, 3–8 cm long, tapering to a point from a rounded to slightly heart-shaped and often asymmetric base; rough and dull green above, with the strongly raised net of veins beneath that gives the tree its name.

Root system

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

Fruit description

Single-seeded drupes 6–10 mm across, orange-red to reddish-brown, with thin sweet flesh over a large stone; they dry on the tree and hang through winter, which is when they are usually gathered.

Propagation

Seed is the standard route — clean the flesh off, then cold stratify moist for 60–90 days at about 4°C before spring sowing; autumn sowing outdoors achieves the same chilling naturally. It reseeds readily where it grows.

Pollination

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

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.