[5][6] Celtis reticulata usually grows to a small-sized tree, 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30 feet) in height and mature at 15 to 35 centimetres (6 to 14 inches) in diameter, although some individuals are known up to 21 m (70 ft) high and 60 cm (24 in) thick.

They are lanceolate to ovate, disproportionate at the base, leathery, entire to serrate (tending toward serrate), clearly net-veined, base obtuse to more or less cordate, tip obtuse to acuminate, and scabrous, with a dark green upper surface and a yellowish-green lower surface.

The small stalks attaching the leaf blade to the stem (the petioles) are generally about 5 to 6 millimetres (3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in) long.

[clarification needed] The fruit is a rigid, brownish to purple berry, 5 to 12 mm in diameter, with thin, sweet pulp.

[9] Its central range includes the Rio Grande watershed and the Chihuahuan Desert in southern Arizona and New Mexico, western Texas, and northern Sonora-Chihuahua-Coahuila.

It is also found in the Madrean Sky Islands of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northern Sonora, and in the White Mountains and along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona.