Nowhere else on the planet will you happen anything that compares to the geeky and up - to - escort Garden Rant reportage of hackberries . Last week ’s Guest Rant by Scott Beuerlein nudged the door on the belittled common hackberry . This workweek we will attempt to bollix up the room access wide open with the nanus nettle tree . Does anyone care ?
seed of the dwarf hackberry .
Never in my life did I imagine I would spend several days searching for hackberry seeds .
Seeds of the dwarf hackberry.
And then an email arrive last March .
Mike Hayman asked if I knew the dwarf sugarberry , Celtis pumila ( tenuifolia).He also wondered if I had any idea where he might find out seed .
I exact ignorance , my casual res publica of mind , but this was not numbskull stupidity . It was , or else , a shining awareness that there was much more to learn about a tree diagram , growing nearby . I found this exciting in that way that Thoreau did when he wrote , “ It is not what you seem at that thing but what you see . ”
Celtis pumila, the dwarf hackberry.
David Fothergill , a Louisville aboriginal and landscape room decorator for the National Forest Service in Helena , Montana , had tipped off Hayman . Fothergill had seenCeltis pumila ( tenuifolia)growing in the knobs of the Jefferson Memorial Forest , less than 20 nautical mile from my Louisville domicile .
Celtis pumila , the nanus hackberry .
Celtis pumilawas new to me . It ’s a lower - growing hackberry , not at all rarefied in Kentucky , but one I had not noticed before . Hayman thought the dwarf hackberry might be a likely urban street tree diagram .
Leaves of the common hackberry.
Louisville is struggling with adiminishing tree canopyand holds the ignominious distinction of having one of the nation ’s top five hottest urban heat island . The city , alongside a variety of non - profits , is plant more trees to cool down the urban inwardness . The tree lovers among us are hop the mayor makes a bold and sustained public telling effort to promote the public - secret initiative all across the city . His personal liaison , connecting the dots in Louisville neighborhood , from Fairdale to Pleasure Ridge Park , Shively , Buechel , Smoketown , and down to Portland , is integral to whittling down the tree canopy shortage .
Mike Hayman , a retired Louisville Courier - Journal lensman , plants trees — lots of them . He knows tree sources , pass water contacts in neighborhoods scattered around the urban center , finds planting position , fix funding and implant the trees . It ’s a generative urban Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - planting model without the common frustration of political relation and a stifling bureaucratism .
Leaves of the common sugarberry .
Distinctive bark of the common hackberry.
I ’ve got rough-cut hackberry seedlings ( Celtis occidentalis)that seminal fluid flush it my garden every yr . And there are a dozen or more volunteer hackberries growing along our back skittle alley , within 50 yards of our garden . No one bothered to weed them out as seedlings , many years ago , or thought to cut them down once they took postponement . So there ’s been no love lost between us .
Hacberries have been the punch line of jocularity in works flake circles for days . Although many will admit that hackberries are strong to kill , rare is the gardener who courageously sings vulgar hackberry ’s praises . Scott Beuerleinis the rare exception .
Celtis occidentalishas anemic - looking gullible leaves that often become deformed with spindle galls . These leafy hickey never seem to get serious damage , but they ’ve caused the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to be shun as an ornamental . Still , all shades of green have a role to playact in this story . And the distinguishing barque of the common sugarberry can even be sensational .
Julian Campbell climbs the ladder for seeds of the dwarf hackberry. Mike Hayman photo.
Distinctive bark of the common sugarberry .
Hackberries were once relatives of elm trees ( Ulmaceaefamily ) without the magic spell . Of naturally , the Dutch elm disease has decimated the American elm . No charm in that . Hackberries , however , are closely undestroyable .
The genusCeltisgot shuffled to the ( Cannabaceaefamily ) a few years ago and now claim kinship with reefer . Do n’t ask me how nettle tree and marijuana rolled together . DNA nosology is research laboratory pelage science ; I ’m just a dirt gardener .
Daniel Boone collecting dwarf hackberry seeds in Adams County, Ohio. Mike Hayman photo.
Even after forty age of close observance in nature , I freely accommodate : I do n’t know diddly about dicots or hackberries .
Enter the skilled botanist Julian Campbell . He know plenty about dicot ( dicot ) , our more evolved blossoming plants , andhackberries .
Julian Campbell climbs the ladder for seeds of the nanus nettle tree . Mike Hayman photo .
Bark of dwarf hackberry. Mike Hayman photo.
Julian is the one I contact with Mike Hayman ’s initial inquiry touch the dwarf sugarberry . He responded correctly forth , saying he screw where someCeltis pumilawere . Julian knows where many of Kentucky ’s conceal treasures are . He toy at pro story in the industrial plant world .
Last month Hayman reminded me that it was time to go look for seeded player . Julian Campbell led us to Franklin and Bullitt Counties , shortsighted distance from Louisville . Hayman even break down to Adams County , Ohio , to roll up with horticulturist and amateur botanist Daniel Boone , a lineal descendant of the famed Kentuckian . Trees were grow in pitiable , wry atmospheric condition that meant they might adjust to restricted urban conditions .
Daniel Boone collecting dwarf hackberry seeds in Adams County , Ohio . Mike Hayman picture .
Andrew Berry , Forester atBernheim Arboretum and Research Forest , told me there was a naturally occurring bonsai of the nanus hackberry on his farm in Mercer County .
But who cares ?
The Beatles , Eleanor Rigby , kept banging around in my heading , during the search for the lonelyCeltis pumila .
All the lone people
Where do they all number from ?
Where do they all go ?
Maybe David Fothergill , Mike Hayman , Julian Campbell , Daniel Boone and Andrew Berry will work the dwarf hackberry out of the shadows .
Hayman sent six accessions ofCeltis pumilaseed to theWoody Warehousein Indiana . The nursery is a well source of aboriginal tree diagram species . They will sow the seeds . The propose timetable ( from come seed to ready - to - institute one - column inch trunk diam in seven gallon grow bag ) will take more or less three days .
Bark of dwarf hackberry . Mike Hayman picture .
It ’s still little more than a fantasy but it ’s exciting to ideate that one solar day the forlorn dwarf nettle tree might find a home on city streets , hell cartoon strip , vacant wad and in Louisville ’s parks .
There ’s now a small fan guild for the nanus hackberry . Well , at least a half - dozen of us . There might be more to fall .
An elated Julian Campbell said , “ We ’re all hackberry nerds , now . ”
