Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Netleaf hackberry has some fire-resistant support, but its overall verdict remains mixed rather than clearly resistant.
Two regional lists recommend it under elevation-specific conditions, while a field-trial database gives it a mixed score. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension includes it among fire-resistant plant materials for Arizona above 3,000 feet. New Mexico’s Forestry Division lists it for elevations of 4,000 through 7,000 feet, marks its suitability at 8,000 feet as unknown or doubtful, and does not recommend it at 9,000 feet or higher.
Idaho Firewise scores netleaf hackberry 6 of 10. On the thresholds used with that scale, scores from 4 through 7 are mixed, while only 8 through 10 qualify for recommendation. That field-trial result keeps the two regional listings from settling the question everywhere.
This low-water tree matures at about 20 feet and is native across several western and central regions of the United States. The practical reading is conditional: Arizona and New Mexico authorities support netleaf hackberry in specified elevation bands, but the Idaho score does not place it in the clearly recommended range. It is better described as a promising regional choice than as a universally fire-resistant tree.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
Arizona at or above 3,000 feet (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-12-01
AZ1289 is explicitly limited to Arizona elevations of 3,000 feet and higher. FireApproved publishes 69 exact owners as regional Arizona context, retaining every water and elevation condition. It is never promoted to statewide low-desert guidance or an independent Tier 1 vote.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, LA, NM, NV, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, NM, NV, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 2b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 70934, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 50' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (mid-scale rating)
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 3, Trees and Large Shrubs, p3-r08 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed among fire-resistant plant materials for Arizona above 3,000 feet.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Celtis reticulata (Netleaf hackberry) in Trees and Large Shrubs. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=Y, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=?, 9,000+ ft=N. Water need: L-M; sun/shade: S; mature height: 10-20’.
