Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Celtis australis
Common name
Nettle Tree, European Nettle-tree
Family
Cannabaceae
Where found
It usually spreads from plantings as a street tree, invading dry forest, open woodland, along streams and urban bushland. Sydney and Canberra. Rarely elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced deciduous tree to about 20 m high. Fruit fleshy. Bark smooth. Leaves alternating up the stems, 4–12 cm long, 10–40 mm wide, margins finely toothed, upper surface rough, lower surface fawnish, hairy to velvety with prominent veins. Male, female, and bisexual flowers on the same tree. Flowers green, with 5–6 'petals' 2-3 mm long, free from each other. Male flowers in few flowered clusters, female and bisexual flowers single or 2 or 3 together. Fruit maturing from green through yellow to brown or reddish purple to black when ripe, globular, about 10 mm in diameter. Flowers early spring, fruits mostly mid-summer to early autumn.
Was Family Ulmaceae.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. Pest plant ACT.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Celtis~australis
(accessed 1 May 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
