English Elm - Ulmus procera 

Found all over England in roadsides, hedges, margins of woods, but less common in the north. Frequently cultivated in west and south Europe.

 

English Elm is (or was before the advent of Dutch Elm disease) the classic hedgerow tree of the English lowlands, suckering vigorously to produce long lines of characteristic compact crowns. It is best distinguished by its small, rounded, rough-surfaced, dark green leaves, which are longer on one side at the base, but rounded where they join the stalk. It has dark, finely ridged bark and slim, hairy twigs. Red flowers are produced in February or March, ripening by May, after the leaves have expanded, to give fruits with the seed nearer the top of the round wing. A variable tree with distinct local types maintained by vegetative propagation (suckering). Probably native, but its distribution and origin are imperfectly understood.

 

Small-leaved Elm U. minor typically has narrower leaves, with the unequal base joining the stalk at right-angles, and oval fruit-wings. It is an exceptionally variable tree, reproducing by suckers to give distinctive local types such as Cornish, Wheatley, and Plot Elms. Common in Europe, and probably introduced in Britain, it is now much reduced by disease. 
from the Collins Gem Guide to Trees (p.134)

 

Wych Elm - Ulmus glabra

The most easily recognized elm, Wych Elm is distinguished by its large, short-stalked leaves, and the absence of sucker shoots. The trunk often forks near the ground and the bark is smooth at first but later develops thick, straight ribs and turns grey. The leaves vary greatly in shape but are large and very rough to the touch. As in all elms, the base of the leaf extends further down the stalk on one side than the other, but in Wych Elm the long side crosses over the short stalk and hides it. The red flowers appear in late February and the winged fruits, with the seed set centrally, are visible before the leaves are expanded. Wych Elm is a common woodland tree, particularly in the north and west, and has shown considerable resistance to Dutch Elm disease. Wych derives from an old word for supple, referring to the twigs.

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Dutch Elm U. x hollandica is thought to be a hybrid with U. minor. Once common, but heavily reduced by Dutch Elm disease, it has cracked bark, many suckers and spreading branches. Huntingdon Elm var. vegeta has straighter branches but both have longer-stalked, smoother leaves than Wych Elm, and seeds not in the middle of the fruit.

 

They have alternate, simple, single- or doubly-serrate leaves, usually asymmetric at the base and acuminate at the apex.  The leaves are 6-9 cm long with a rough upper surface, and hairy underside. Elms are hermaphroditic, having perfect flowers, and which, being wind-pollinated, are without petals. The fruit is a round samara.

 

Elms, like other shade trees, are nature’s air conditioners. They help to cool not just by providing shade but by the transpiration of water from their leaves. In fact, the cooling effect of one urban elm tree is equivalent to five air conditioning units.

 

And like all trees, elms are a natural air purifier converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. 
All species are tolerant of a wide range of soils and pH levels but, with one exception (European White Elm U. laevis), demand good drainage.

 

Selected for their shade cover, genetic variation was reduced making the species especially vulnerable to <a href="http://hedgerowmobile.com/dutchelmdisease.html">Dutch elm disease</a>.  After the disease reached Britain in 1967, more than 12 million English elms perished.  Mature English elms can grow to 36m and have narrow crowns. Owing to the devastation caused by Dutch elm disease, to which all American and European species are susceptible, much effort has been made on both sides of the Atlantic to raise disease-resistant hybrids and cultivars, with the result that the number of named trees now exceeds 200. The English elm Ulmus procera Salis. was relatively rare in America until the 17th and 18th centuries when it was planted extensively by landowners along hedges that surrounded farmland.

 

Understanding how an elm tree lives and breathes is important in understanding how Dutch elm disease has spread.

Just like the human cardio-vascular system of arteries and veins, a tree has a vascular system of long thin vertical tubes. This vascular system takes the water and nutrients from the roots and distributes them throughout the tree.

In an elm, the cells that produce the vascular tubes are found just beneath the bark in a layer called the cambium.  After each growing season, the inner part of the cambium dies. A new cambium is formed the next spring. If you cut through a tree trunk, you can see the tree rings. Each ring is a cambium layer.

An elm tree has a very efficient vascular system but that also makes it vulnerable. The same qualities that allow the elm to efficiently draw water to its upper leaves also give fungi and insects easy access to the inner workings of the tree. The fungus that causes Dutch elm disease, for example, essentially clogs the elm tree’s vascular system.

Dutch elm disease can be treated. However, because the tree’s vascular system is renewed every year, treatments have to be repeated annually.

 

Elm trees have entered our mythology -  a mark of their prominence in the lives of early civilizations. 

 

Germanic tribes included the elm in their creation myth.

Germanic Creation Myth 
The ancient Germanic peoples who came to inhabit much of Europe, believed that three gods, Odin, Vili and Ve, created the world.   
According to the myth, these three gods were walking by the sea examining their handiwork when they came upon two fallen trees.  One was an ash, the other an elm.  Odin imbued them with the spark of life.  Vili endowed them with spirit and a thirst for knowledge.  Ve gave them the gift of five senses.

When they had finished, the fallen trees resembled the gods themselves.  Out of the ash came man.  Woman was created from the elm and her name was Embla.

 

Romans used living elms to support their grapevines  - a practice called "marrying the vine to the elm."  They also selectively bred elms producing many of the species we see today throughout their former Empire.

 

 

Cultivation and uses

 

Elm wood was valued for its interlocking grain, and consequent resistance to splitting, with significant uses in wheels, chair seats and coffins. The wood is also resistant to decay when permanently wet, and hollowed trunks were widely used as water pipes during the mediaeval period in Europe. Elms also have a long history of cultivation for fodder, with the leafy branches cut for livestock. The bark, cut into strips and boiled, sustained much of the rural population of Norway during the famine in the mid-19th century. From the 18th century to the early 20th century, elms were among the most widely planted ornamental tree in both Europe and North America. They were particularly popular as a street tree in avenue plantings in towns and cities, creating high-tunnelled effects. It had unique properties that made it ideal for such use: rapid growth, adaptation to a broad range of climates and soils, strong wood, resistant to wind damage, and vase-like growth habit requiring minimal pruning. In Europe, the Wych Elm U. glabra and the Smooth-leaved Elm U. minor var. minor were the most widely planted in the countryside, with the former in northern areas (Scandinavia, northern Britain), and the latter further south. The hybrid between these two, Dutch Elm U. × hollandica, occurs naturally and was also commonly planted. In parks and gardens, from about 1850 to 1920, the most prized small specimen elm was the Camperdown Elm, a contorted weeping cultivar of the Wych Elm Ulmus glabra Camperdownii, grafted on a standard Wych Elm trunk to give a wide, spreading and weeping fountain shape in large garden spaces. In Australia large numbers of English Elms U. procera were planted as ornamentals in the early 20th century.

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Feeding and other inter-species relationships associated with Ulmus procera:

 

Is associated with

• aphid infested is associate of Heringia - a genus of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae)

• is foodplant of Polydrusus cervinus - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is foodplant of Polydrusus pterygomalis - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is foodplant of Phyllobius glaucus - a leaf weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is foodplant of Phyllobius maculicornis - Green Leaf Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is foodplant of Phyllobius oblongus - Brown Leaf Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is foodplant of Phyllobius pyri - Common Leaf Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is associate of Melandrya caraboides - a false darkling beetle (Coleoptera: Melandryidae)

• is associate of Anthonomus ulmi - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is associate of Rhynchaenus alni - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• is associate of Corticeus bicolor - a darkling beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

• is associate of Scaphidema metallicum - a darkling beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

• is associate of Nemozoma elongatum - a beetle (Coleoptera: Trogossitidae)   

 
 Leaf

• aphid-curled leaf is associate of larva Pipiza luteitarsis - a hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae)

• leaf (midrib) is galled by Kaltenbachiella pallida - an aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae)

• leaf (vein) is galled by larva Janetiella lemei - a gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

• leaf is galled by Eriophyes brevipunctatus - a mite (Eriophyidae)

• leaf is galled by Eriophyes campestricola (Eriophyidae)

• leaf is galled by Eriophyes filiformis - a gall mite (Eriophyidae)

• leaf is galled by larva Dasineura ulmicola - a gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

• leaf is galled by larva Physemocecis ulmi - a gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

• leaf is galled by Eriosoma ulmi - an aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae)

• leaf is galled by Schizoneura lanuginosa - an aphid (Homoptera: Pemphigidae)

• leaf is galled by Tetraneura ulmi - Fig Gall (Homoptera: Pemphigidae)

• leaf is galled by fruitbody Taphrina ulmi - an ascomycete fungus (Taphrinales)

• leaf is mined by larva Fenusa ulmi - a sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

• leaf is grazed by larva Nematus melanocephalus - a sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

• leaf is grazed by larva Nematus umbratus - a sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

• leaf is grazed by larva Priophorus laevifrons - a sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

• leaf is grazed by larva Priophorus ulmi - a sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

• leaves (terminal) is galled by Eriosoma patchiae - an aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae)  

 

root

• young root is galled by Mimeura ulmiphila (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae)   

 

sap

• exuding sap may house larva Phaonia cincta - a muscid fly (Diptera: Muscidae)

• sap run is decayed by larva Brachyopa insensilis - a hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae)

• sap run is decayed by larva Brachyopa scutellaris - a hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae)   [always close to the ground] 

• sap run is decayed by larva Sphegina - a genus of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae)   

 

bark

• under rotting bark is associate of Pyrochroa serraticornis - Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae)

• under bark is associate of Cerylon histeroides - a cerylonid beetle (Coleoptera: Cerylonidae)

• under bark is associate of Aulonium trisulcum - a narrow timber beetle (Coleoptera: Colydiidae)

• dead branch or twig cambium is mined by larva Magdalis armigera - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) 

 

cambium

• cambium may contain larva Hylastes opacus - a bark or ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Pteleobius vittatus - a bark or ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Scolytus intricatus - a bark or ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Scolytus laevis - a bark or ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Scolytus mali - Large Fruit Bark Beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Scolytus multistriatus - Small Elm Bark Beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Scolytus scolytus - Large Elm Bark Beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

• cambium may contain larva Xyleborus dryographus - an ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

 

wood

• wood may contain larva Xyletinus longitarsis - a wood boring beetle (Coleoptera: Anobiidae)

• wood may contain larva Elater ferrugineus - a click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

• wood may contain larva Ischnodes sanguinicollis - a click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

• wood may contain larva Megapenthes lugens - a click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

• wood may contain larva Tremex columba - a woodwasp (Hymenoptera: Siricidae)

• wood may contain larva Xiphydria prolongata - a willow woodwasp (Hymenoptera: Xiphydriidae) 

 

dead wood

• hollow detritus & litter of hollow may contain larva Fannia gotlandica - a lesser house fly (Diptera: Fanniidae)

• dead or rotten wood may contain larva Dorcus parallelipipedus - Lesser Stag Beetle (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

• dead wood may contain Cossonus parallelepipedus - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• dead wood is foodplant of Rhopalomesites tardyi - Holly Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• dead, esp hollow wood may contain Phloeophagus lignarius - a weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

• decaying wood may contain Prionychus ater - a darkling beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

• rotting wood may house larva Phaonia exoleta - a muscid fly (Diptera: Muscidae)

• wet, decaying wood may contain Plegaderus dissectus - a carrion beetle (Coleoptera: Histeridae)

• dead or rotten wood of esp. stump may contain larva Lucanus cervus - Stag Beetle (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

• rot hole is decayed by larva Mallota cimbiciformis - a hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae)

• rot hole is decayed by larva Criorhina floccosa - a hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae)

   
 

 

Checklist of UK recorded Elm

 

• Ulmus aggregate Elm

• Ulmus glabra Hudson Wych Elm

• Ulmus glabra subsp. glabra 

• Ulmus glabra subsp. montana 

• Ulmus glabra x minor sensu Stace 

• Ulmus glabra x procera 

• Ulmus laevis Pallas European White-elm

• Ulmus minor Miller Small Leaved Elm (sensu Stace)

• Ulmus minor subsp. angustifolia (Weston) Stace Goodyer's Elm

• Ulmus minor subsp. minor 

• Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis Jersey Elm

• Ulmus minor x procera 

• Ulmus plotii Druce Plot's Elm

• Ulmus plotii x procera 

• Ulmus procera Salisb. English Elm

• Ulmus procera x minor 

• Ulmus procera x plottii 

• Ulmus sp. an elm

• Ulmus x elegantissima Horwood U. glabra x plotii

• Ulmus x hollandica Miller Dutch Elm (U. glabra x minor x plotii)

• Ulmus x hollandica var. insularum U. glabra x minor

• Ulmus x vegeta (Loudon) Ley Huntington Elm (U. glabra x minor)

• Ulmus x viminalis Lodd. U. minor x plotii

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