Celtis

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Celtis
Leaves and immature fruit of Chinese hackberry (C. sinensis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Cannabaceae
Genus: Celtis
L.
Species

Some 60–70 (see below)

Synonyms
  • Colletia Scop.
  • Mertensia Kunth 1817 nom. illeg. hom.
  • Momisia F. Dietr. 1819
  • Sparrea Hunz. & Dottori 1978

Celtis is a

temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The genus is part of the extended Cannabis family (Cannabaceae
).

Description

Celtis species are generally medium-sized

serrated margins. Diagnostically, Celtis can be very similar to trees in the Rosaceae and other rose motif families.[citation needed
]

Small flowers of this

monoecious plant appear in early spring while the leaves are still developing. Male flowers are longer and fuzzy. Female flowers are greenish and more rounded.[citation needed
]

The fruit is a small drupe 6–10 millimetres (1438 in) in diameter, edible in many species, with a dryish but sweet, sugary consistency, reminiscent of a date.[citation needed]

Taxonomy

Previously included either in the elm family (Ulmaceae) or a separate family, Celtidaceae, the APG III system places Celtis in an expanded hemp family (Cannabaceae).[1][2]

Phylogeny

Members of the genus are present in the fossil record as early as the Miocene of Europe, and Paleocene of North America and eastern Asia.[3][4]

Species

66 species are currently accepted.[5]

Clusters of staminate (male) flowers of C. africana, with four tepals and four stamens each
Leaf of C. occidentalis

Removed from genus

  • Trema cannabina Lour. (as C. amboinensis Willd.)
  • Trema lamarckiana
    (Schult.) Blume (as C. lamarckiana Schult.)
  • Trema orientalis
    (L.) Blume (as C. guineensis Schumach. or C. orientalis L.)
  • Trema tomentosa (Roxb.) H.Hara (as C. aspera Brongn. or C. tomentosa Roxb.)[7]

Etymology

The generic name originated in Latin and was applied by Pliny the Elder to the unrelated Ziziphus lotus.[8]

Distribution and habitat

The trees are widespread in warm

temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including Southern Europe, South and East Asia, southern and central North America,[9] south and central Africa, and northern and central South America
.

Ecology