Hackberry is one of those trees that just doesn't get the respect it deserves for how well it supports wildlife and pollinators. The berries it produces are eaten by a wide variety of birds from late fall and on into late winter. Many mammals also feed on the berries, which are also edible and can be eaten raw or turned into jelly. Hackberry is a host plant for several caterpillars including some of the oddest and coolest butterflies in eastern NA. There are several species of hackberry in eastern NA and this video covers the 3 with the largest ranges that are also the ones most commonly available for sale at nurseries. I also threw in a few cool facts about hackberries.

Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

Thanks for watching, Anthony

Nice video. Hackberry is the #1 tree I recommend for yard planting, I've gotten several other tree guys pushing them as well. They're hardy, good structure naturally (do benefit from some pruning when young) and they are not prone to breaking like Cherry.

My favorite sales pitch is "if they had a better name everyone would be planting them"

I had a huge hackberry that covered much of my house and yard

great shade , small leaves come fall could basically just mulch them up with the mower if you did it regular.

unfortunately a few storms were not kind and it had some rot

Good one, Anthony .... cannabis ? Really ? Who knew !

Thank you for the share .

Super all around tree. We have them growing everywhere here, and the have way more positives than negatives. Good burning wood too, just don’t try to keep it more than a year in a pile, as the borers eat it up! I know a fella that milled hardwood floors for the high brows around KC, and he used hackberry a lot. I told him once that hackberry is technically a soft wood, and he said, “have you ever tried to drive a nail in a piece of dry hackberry?” It made a beautiful light colored floor. Plus it feeds wildlife all winter long. I grew up eating the seeds, (not the pits) and have an awesome flavor, but there isn’t much meat on them! Lol. Coons live in the hackberry trees in the fall, when there is a crop. Great tree!

Thanks!

Hackberry makes a decent substitute for black ash when making pounded splint baskets. Works just like black ash, but rougher splint finish than black ash, and overall a tougher basket from what I have seen.

Down here they are bad to get aphids and the resulting honeydew will turn any painted surface under them black. Don't park a car under one.

They come from one town around here most trees in SD were planted so different towns can have different trees. We cut a bunch down at the local church every tree had center rot going on plus the roots started to push up the sidewalk.

Makes great firewood it splits easy and straight.

Killed hundreds of coon out of hackberries in my dog hunting days.
Awesome tree.
Lots of them around these parts

And, they can get HUGE! I know of 2 that are 6' in dia.

Cut one down years ago and dried it the boards are 20 inches across but most of it’s still sitting there as it’s so hard it’s hard on tools.

I consider them junk trees. Cut them down.

Maybe you should confer with those bucks and bears. They might not agree with you. Deer will browse on them, and I am fairly that sure that the bears would eat the fruit.

I have never worked it, but have seen some amazing self bows made out of hackberry. I have a very clean stave in my stash, some day I will get to it.

OK, I will.

Makes good firewood splits easier than elm I’d take all I could get for the boiler member of the elm family.

My fleshing beam is Hackberry. Best beam I've ever owned, it's had a ton of beaver draped over it through the last 10 years.

I have a lot of them in my woods. They make great firewood; easy to split and give off good heat.

Thanks everyone who gave it a watch!