For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Celtis labilis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous tree 40 to 60 ft high, its trunk 3 to 6 ft in girth, the bark smooth and pale grey; young shoots yellowish, densely downy. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, obliquely rounded at the base, the apex shortly but often slenderly pointed, rather coarsely toothed except towards the base; 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, half as much wide; dark glossy green and slightly downy above, duller and paler beneath. The pale-coloured veins are downy and the rest of the under-surface thinly downy or glabrous; stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄3 in. long, very downy. Fruit orange-coloured, smooth, globose, scarcely 1⁄3 in. wide, produced in pairs or threes; fruit-stalks downy, 1⁄4 in. long.
Native of China in W. Hupeh and E. Szechwan; introduced by Wilson to the Arnold Arboretum in 1907 (No. 444), and to Kew the following year. Wilson remarks that it is easily recognised by the small, fruit-bearing branchlets dropping off in entirety when the fruits are ripe.