Celtis occidentalis, commonly known as the Common hackberry,

 

Hackberry is a large deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the nettletree, sugarberry, beaverwood, northern hackberry, and American hackberry. It is a moderately long-lived hardwood with a light-colored wood, yellowish gray to light brown with yellow streaks

 

The common hackberry is easily distinguished from elms and some other hackberries by its cork-like bark with wart-like protuberances. The remarkable bark pattern is even more pronounced in younger trees, with the irregularly-spaced ridges resembling long geologic palisades of sedimentary [layered] rock formations when viewed edge-wise [cross-section]. Coins as large as USA quarters can easily be laid flat against the valleys, which may be as deep as an adult human finger.

 

Usually the common hackberry forms a medium-sized tree, thirty to fifty feet in height, with a slender trunk; however, it can rise to the height of one hundred and thirty feet, in the best conditions in the southern Mississippi valley area. In the middle states of its range it seldom attains a height of more than sixty feet, and has a handsome round-topped head and pendulous branches.

 

It prefers rich moist soil, but will grow on gravelly or rocky hillsides. The roots are fibrous and it grows rapidly. In the western part of its range with less rainfall and poorer soils it normally averages about thirty feet in height, but at least one specimen was found at ninety five feet. The maximum age attained by hackberry is probably between 150 and 200 years in ideal conditions.