Celtis caucasica

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit is eaten raw and has a mealy, pleasant flavour. Each fruit is about 4–5mm in diameter with thin, dry, sweet flesh and a slight astringency. Although trees in Britain often produce large crops, the amount of edible flesh on each fruit is so small that harvesting is scarcely worthwhile.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant.

Afghanistan, Asia, Balkans, Bulgaria, Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe, Georgia, Himalayas, India, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Türkiye,

How to Identify

A tree. It loses its leaves during the year. It grow 15 m high. The branches are slender and hang downwards. The young shoots are hairy. The leaves are 4-10 cm long by 2-5 cm wide. The base is unequal and it tapers to the tip. The flowers are small and pale green. The fruit is fleshy and 7 mm across. They are reddish-brown.

How to Grow

Succeeds in any reasonably good soil, preferring a good fertile well-drained loamy soil. Succeeds on dry gravels and on sandy soils. Established plants are very drought resistant. Trees prefer hotter summers and more sunlight than are normally experienced in Britain, they often do not fully ripen their wood when growing in this country and they are then very subject to die-back in winter. Trees can be very long-lived, perhaps to 1000 years. This species is closely allied to C. australis but it is much hardier and is more likely to thrive in Britain than most other species in this genus. A tree at Kew in September 1989 was 12 metres tall though it was not bearing fruit. Coppices well. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus.

Propagation: Sow seed as soon as ripe in a cold frame for best results. Stored seed should receive 2–3 months of cold stratification before sowing in February or March in a greenhouse. Germination is generally good, though stored seed may take 12 months or longer to germinate, and seed can be stored for up to 5 years. Prick seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle. Seedling leaves often show white patches lacking chlorophyll, which is normal; older plants produce fully green leaves. Grow seedlings in a cold frame through their first winter and plant out the following late spring or early summer, with protection from cold during their first winter outdoors. Can also be propagated by cuttings.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

The wood is very tough, elastic, durable, and of high quality. It also makes an excellent fuel.

Celtis caucasica, the Caucasian hackberry or Caucasian nettle tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cannabaceae. It is native to the Caucasus region, Central Asia, and on to the western Himalaya. Hardy to USDA zone 5b, it tolerates poor soils, drought, and nearby paving, and can be used as street tree. It is a nitrogen-fixer, in symbiosis with the mycorrhizal fungi Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus intraradices.

Notes

There are 70-100 Celtis species. They are mostly in the tropics. There are 8-10 species in tropical America. Also put in the family Ulmaceae.

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