European nettle tree
Celtis australis
Family · Cannabaceae · Harmless
The tree with smooth grey bark like a beech's, planted in squares and avenues across half the Peninsula and wild in rocky valleys. It bears small sweet fruits, like miniature cherries, that almost nobody uses.
Streams and ditches · Town and roadside · Walls and rocks · Oak woods
Also known ashackberry, honeyberry
How to tell it
An elongated pointed leaf, rough above, with a clearly asymmetric base and a margin toothed only from the middle up. Smooth grey bark at any age. Round fruits on a long stalk, turning from orange to dark brown.
What it is confused with
Field elm
Ulmus minor
Both have an asymmetric leaf base, the mark of the wider family. Bark separates them from afar: smooth and grey on hackberry, deeply cracked on elm. And the fruit: a round berry versus a winged disc.
What it is for
The ripe fruit is edible, with little flesh and a big stone, tasting of dates. The wood is flexible and tough and made pitchforks, handles and rods for centuries, with dedicated fairs in Spain for those pieces.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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