Identifying Elms

You know it's an elm because: the leaves are alternate and (except for Siberian Elm (U.pumila) always show some asymmetry at the leaf-base; the fruit is highly characteristic; flower-buds are often prominent over winter, with tiny flowers in early spring.

---

In most parts of the country only a tiny remnant have survived the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease.

Naturally-occurring elms consist of young regrowth (which becomes infected and dies once the trunk reaches about 10cm in diameter) of the large-leaved, very short-stalked Wych Elm, of the various forms of the longer stalked Field Elm, and of a confusing range of their hybrids.

Planted elms consist of survivors among the less-susceptible cultivars, such as Huntingdon Elm (which usually has the first vein on the shorter side exposed) and of younger plantings of DED-resistant Asiatic species, (e.g. ‘Sapporo Autumn Gold’) all with small, relatively narrow, only slightly asymmetric leaves.

If you want to see elms, take a trip to Brighton where several thousand surviving trees are assiduously protected, having first printed out a copy of  Elm Trees in Brighton and Hove .

 
 

---

Click on an orange link to display the associated image; click on the image to see the larger parent image in a separate window

Copyright © 2007 Philip Brassett