Trees or shrubs , size varying greatly in response to habitat; crowns rounded. Bark gray, deeply furrowed, warty with age. Wood light yellow, weak. Branches without thorns, spreading, young branches mostly pubescent. Leaves: petiole 0.5-1.2 mm. Leaf blade lance-ovate to broadly ovate or deltate, 5-12 × 3-6(-9) cm (on fertile branches), leathery, base oblique or obliquely somewhat acuminate, margins conspicuously serrate to well below middle, teeth 10-40, apex acuminate; surfaces scabrous. Inflorescences dense pendulous clusters. Drupes dark orange to purple- or blue-black when ripe, orbicular, to 7-11(-20) mm diam., commonly with thick beak; pedicel to 15 mm. Stones cream colored, 7-9 × 5-8 mm, reticulate. 2 n = 20, 30, and 40. Flowering late winter-spring (Mar-May). In rich moist soil along streams, on flood plains, on rock, on wooded hillsides, and in woodlands; 0-1800 m; Man., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis., Wyo. Celtis occidentalis is valued as an ornamental street tree because of its tolerance to drought. Native Americans used decoctions prepared from the bark of Celtis occidentalis medicinally as an aid in menses and to treat sore throat (D. E. Moerman 1986).
This is a highly variable species. Segregates named as varieties follow an east-west geographic gradient and are based primarily on leaf size, shape, and pubescence.
Commonly 6-15(35) m, tending to form a symmetrical, openly branched tree; lvs dark green above, paler beneath, lance-ovate to broadly ovate or deltoid, those of the fertile branches 6-12 cm, conspicuously serrate, abruptly acuminate to very long-acuminate, oblique at the base, one side (seldom both) generally ±strongly cordate, varying from thin and smooth to firm, impressed- veiny and scabrous above, and pubescent beneath, as in the next sp.; major areoles (between the primary lateral veins) usually 5-8 on each side; style tardily deciduous, ±persistent on the developing fr; fr ellipsoid to subglobose, 7-13 mm, dark red to nearly black, sweet and tasty, on a pedicel (7-)10-20(-25) mm that usually notably surpasses the subtending petiole; stone conspicuously pitted. Usually in moist, rich soil, often on floodplains; s. Que. to s. Man., s. to Va., Ark., and Okla., and locally to N.C., Ga., Ala., and Miss. Highly variable, but not clearly divisible into vars. (C. canina; C. crassifolia)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.