A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Celtis labilis Schneid.

Modern name

Celtis sinensis Pers.

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; 112 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 18 to 13 in. long, very downy. Fruit orange-coloured, smooth, globose, scarcely 13 in. wide, produced in pairs or threes; fruit-stalks downy, 14 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.


Genus

Celtis

Other species in the genus