Celtis sinensisPers.

Chinese CeltisChinese elmChinese hackberryJapanese hackberry

WFO wfo-0000593746 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205711697
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. b Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 202369554
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. c Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 198591836
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196988617
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. e Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 195452916
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. f Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 194882912
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. g Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 191437888
Celtis sinensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. h Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 190579215

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 9 botanical countries

Regions where Celtis sinensis is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, East Himalaya, Laos, Vietnam China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanEast HimalayaLaosVietnam Korea
Native distribution of Celtis sinensis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Taiwan TAI
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
Laos LAO
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Celtis bodinieri H.Lév.
  • Celtis bungeana var. pubipedicella G.H.Wang
  • Celtis cercidifolia C.K.Schneid.
  • Celtis hunanensis Hand.-Mazz.
  • Celtis japonica Planch.
  • Celtis japonica f. magnifica Nakai
  • Celtis japonica f. purpurascens Nakai
  • Celtis japonica f. rotundata Nakai
  • Celtis labilis C.K.Schneid.
  • Celtis nervosa Hemsl.
  • Celtis sinensis Willd.
  • Celtis sinensis f. magnifica (Nakai) Nakai
  • Celtis sinensis f. purpurascens (Nakai) Nakai
  • Celtis sinensis f. rotundata (Nakai) Nakai
  • Celtis sinensis var. japonica (Planch.) Nakai
  • Celtis sinensis var. nervosa (Hemsl.) F.Y.Lu, C.H.Ou, Y.T.Chen, Y.S.Chi, K.C.Lu & Y.H.Tseng
  • Celtis tetrandra subsp. sinensis (Pers.) Y.C.Tang
  • Celtis willdenowiana Schult.
  • Sponia willdenowiana G.Don

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.