Unique Features: This is a columnar cultivar of Hackberry, a durable and adaptable North American tree. The Hackberry grows at a moderate to fast rate, depending on moisture and soil. The leaves emerge slightly later in the spring, so they avoid the late spring frosts, and change from a deep green to a pale yellow in fall. The flowers are insignificant and the fruit, while edible, is best left for the birds. In prehistoric times people did eat hackberries, and there is even evidence of them being some of the earliest preserved foods. Over time hackberry trees develop thick, ridged and warty bark to help conserve moisture during drought and serve as insulation during cold winters.  Most hackberries in our area develop leaf galls that don’t hurt the tree but are cosmetically unappealing.  Appreciate your hackberry from a distance.