Celtis subdentata

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Cannabaceae

Herbs, annual or perennial , erect or twining , dioecious or sometimes monoecious, often with cystoliths (a hard calcium carbonate structure at base of a hair) . Stems furrowed or winged . Stipules free . Leaves alternate or opposite, palmately lobed or compound , sometimes simple . Male inflorescences a bracteate cymose panicle. Male flowers: pedicellate ; sepals 5, free; petals absent; stamens 5, opposite sepals; filaments short; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscent by longitudinal slits. Female inflorescences a bracteate spicate cyme much reduced in Cannabis, pendent or erect. Female flowers: sessile; calyx appressed to ovary, membranous; petals absent; ovary 1-loculed; ovule solitary, pendulous from locule apex; style 2-parted, branches filiform . Fruit an achene, covered by persistent calyx; endosperm fleshy ; embryo curved or spirally involute .

Two genera and four species: N Africa, Asia, Europe, North America; two genera and four species (one endemic) in China.

Because all the Chinese species in this family are cultivated and are often found naturalized in disturbed habitats , it is difficult to know the true wild distributions.

Cannabaceae has sometimes been included in Moraceae or Urticaceae but is now usually recognized as a distinct family. The subfamily Celtidoideae of Ulmaceae could possibly be included within Cannabaceae (see the discussion after the Ulmaceae family description ) .[1]

Genus Celtis

Trees or rarely shrubs , to 30 m ; crowns spreading . Bark usually gray, smooth or often fissured and conspicuously warty. Branches without or with thorns , slender, glabrous or pubescent . Leaves: stipules falling early. Leaf blade deltate to ovate to oblong-lanceolate, base oblique or cuneate to rounded , margins entire or serrate-dentate; venation 3(-5) -pinnate. Inflorescences: staminate inflorescences cymes or fascicles; pistillate solitary or few-flowered clusters . Flowers usually unisexual , staminate and pistillate on same plants , along with a few bisexual flowers, pedicellate on branches of current year, appearing in mid or late spring . Staminate flowers : filaments incurved in bud, exserted after anthesis ; gynoecium minute, rudimentary . Pistillate flowers: calyx slightly to deeply 4(-5) -lobed; stamens 4-5, inserted on pilose receptacle, included , often nonfunctional filaments usually shorter than in staminate flowers, rarely absent; anthers ovate, face to face in bud, extrorse ; ovaries sessile, ovoid , 1-locular; styles short, sessile, divided into 2 divergent, elongate , reflexed lobes , lobes entire or 2-cleft. Fruits fleshy drupes, ovoid or globose ; outer mesocarp thick, firm, inner mesocarp thin, fleshy; stones thick walled, ripening in autumn, persisting after leaves fall . x = 10.

Species ca. 60: tropical and temperate regions , worldwide.

The hackberries provide important wildlife habitat , forming thickets that give shelter and fleshy drupes that ripen in autumn, persist after leaves fall, and supply winter food for birds and mammals. The treatment presented here is a simplified circumscription of species with no elaboration of infraspecific variation or interspecific hybridization. The group is taxonomically complex and in need of revision .[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : E.Mey. ex Planch. Publication : Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. ser. 3, 10: 341 1848 [Dec 1848]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Celtis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 31 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. australis (European Hackberry) · C. bungeana (Hackberry) · C. ehrenbergiana (Spiny Hackberry) · C. iguanaea (Iguana Hackberry) · C. jessoensis (Japanese Hackberry) · C. julianae (Julian Hackberry) · C. laevigata (Net-Leaf Hackberry) · C. laevigata reticulata (Netleaf Hackberry) · C. laevigata var. brevipes (Sugar Hackberry) · C. laevigata var. laevigata (Sugarberry) · C. laevigata var. reticulata (Netleaf Hackberry) · C. laevigata var. texana (Texas Sugarberry) · C. laevigata 'All Seasons' (Sugar Hackberry) · C. lindheimeri (Lindheimer Hackberry) · C. occidentalis (American Hackberry) · C. occidentalis L. var. occidentalis L. (Common Hackberry) · C. occidentalis L. var. pumila (Pursh) A.Gray (Common Hackberry) · C. occidentalis var. canina (Common Hackberry) · C. occidentalis var. occidentalis (Western Hackberry) · C. occidentalis var. pumila (Dwarf Hackberry) · C. occidentalis 'Chicagoland' (American Hackberry) · C. occidentalis 'Delta' (American Hackberry) · C. occidentalis 'Prairie Pride' (American Hackberry) · C. occidentalis 'Windy City' (American Hackberry) · C. pallida (Capul) · C. reticulata var. reticulata (Netleaf Hackberry) · C. sinensis (Chinese Elm) · C. sinensis 'Green Cascade' (Chinese Elm) · C. tenuifolia (Dwarf Hackberry) · C. tournefortii (Oriental Hackberry) · C. trinervia (Almex)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Catalogue of the African plants London, Printed by order of the Trustees, 1896-1901. url .
• The natural history of plants. By H. Baillon. Tr. by Marcus M. Hartog. London, L. Reeve & co., 1871-88. url p. 192.
• The natural history of plants. London, L. Reeve & Co., 1871-88. url .
• Chang Siushih. 1998. Cannaboideae. In: Chang Siushih & Wu Chengyih, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 23(1): 220224.
• Correll, D. S. and M. C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas. Renner, Tex.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 10813297
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 851181-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3937215

Footnotes

1. Zhengyi Wu, Zhe-Kun Zhou & Bruce Bartholomew "Cannabaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 74. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. "Celtis". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.