Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Celtis reticulata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A small deciduous tree 30 to 40 ft high, sometimes shrubby; young shoots covered thickly with outstanding down. Leaves obliquely ovate, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, pointed, toothed except at the base, often entire on adult plants; 11⁄2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 1 to 3 in. wide; pale bright green, rough to the touch and with scarcely any down above; very downy on the midrib and veins, and conspicuously net-veined beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. long. Fruit globose, 1⁄3 in. wide, orange-red, borne on a slender downy stalk 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. long.
Native of the S.W. United States (Texas, etc.); originally described in 1828. On young trees introduced from the Arnold Arboretum in 1920, the leaves are more downy and more conspicuously toothed than in adult fruit-bearing specimens collected in the wild; the latter have leaves toothed only near the apex or are quite toothless. The strong venation of the leaves is a prominent characteristic of this tree.
This is best regarded as a variety of C. occidentalis – var. reticulata (Torr.) Sarg. There are young plants at Kew.