Celtis tetrandra Seeds | Himalayan Hackberry

Himalayan Hackberry (Celtis tetrandra) with large three-veined leaves and orange drupes on a tall forest tree — Himalayan Hackberry (*Celtis tetrandra*): Cannabaceae, the great shade tree of Himalayan valleys and village squares.

LATIN NAME: Celtis tetrandra

COMMON NAME: Himalayan Hackberry

Plant Profile

The Himalayan Hackberry is a large deciduous tree of the hemp family, rising twenty to thirty metres in the valleys and lower slopes of the Himalaya from Kashmir through Nepal to Yunnan and Southeast Asia. Its leaves are large, softly hairy and strongly three-veined, carried on long stalks that give the crown a light, rustling texture, and the small spring flowers are followed by pea-sized drupes that ripen to orange and red. The bark is smooth and pale grey, blocky with age.

In its home valleys it is a village tree in the fullest sense: planted over squares and wells, used as a fodder lopper for livestock, and standing in the mixed subtropical forest as one of the largest broadleaves of the middle hills. It is a tree of the warm temperate zone, below the conifers and above the tropical lowland.

Science & Biotechnology

Its role in traditional Himalayan agroforestry has been recorded in the regional literature: foliage lopped for stall-fed livestock through the dry season, a practice that ties the species directly to hill farming systems. Botanically it belongs to the same rearranged Celtis as its northern cousin, seated in Cannabaceae on molecular evidence, and its wide range across such varied climates has made it a subject of interest in studies of how the genus diversified across the Himalayan elevation gradient. The leaves are also recorded as a minor silkworm host in parts of India, one more thread in its village economy.

Its timber is pale, workable and used locally, and the fruit is eaten by people and birds across its range, though the harvest is a walk-by crop rather than a trade.

Uses & Benefits

In gardens within its climatic range it is a grand, light shade tree: big enough to cool a courtyard, fine-textured enough not to smother underplanting, and tolerant of the dry season it was bred by nature to endure. Outside the warm-temperate Himalayan belt it is rarely hardy, and it remains a tree of collections rather than of general cultivation.

Its village uses are the honest story: fodder, shade, fruit and timber, the four services a hill community asks of a tree, delivered without ceremony. For the grower, the fruit is eaten by birds and occasionally by people, and the leaves are the real crop in its home valleys.

Growing from Seed

Clean the pulp from ripe fruit and sow in autumn into a deep, free-draining compost, leaving the pots in a cold frame for the winter; germination follows in spring and can straggle, so keep the trays going a second season. Alternatively cold-stratify for three months and sow in spring. Keep the seed moist and shaded.

Grow the seedlings in full sun with steady water, pot on deep, and line out for two or three seasons before planting into their permanent spot in autumn. They want deep, well-drained soil in full sun and a warm-temperate climate; water through the first two summers, then let the tree do what valley trees have always done.

Our Take

The great village shade tree of the Himalayan valleys: fodder for the stall, fruit for the birds and cool air for the square. A grand tree for warm-temperate gardens with room.

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