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Ulmus glabra, the wych elm, or Scots elm, has the widest range of the European elm species, from Ireland eastwards to the Urals, and from the Arctic Circle south to the mountains of the Peloponnese in Greece; it is also found in Iran. A large, deciduous tree, it is essentially a montane species, growing at elevations up to 1500 m, preferring sites with moist soils and high humidity. The tree can form pure forests in Scandinavia and occurs as far north as latitude 67°N at Beiarn in Norway, and has been successfully introduced as far north as Tromsø, Norway and Alta, Norway (70°N). Wych elm has also been successfully introduced to Narsarsuaq, near the southern tip of Greenland (61°N).
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Atinia Variegata', the Variegated-leaved common English Elm, formerly known as U. procera 'Argenteo-Variegata' and described by Weston (1770) as U. campestris argenteo-variegata, is believed to have originated in England in the seventeenth century and to have been cultivated since the eighteenth. The Oxford botanist Robert Plot mentioned in a 1677 Flora a variegated elm in Dorset, where English Elm is the common field elm. Elwes and Henry (1913) had no doubt that the cultivar was of English origin, "as it agrees with the English Elm in all its essential characters". At the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, the tree was listed as U. procera 'Marginata', as the variegation is sometimes most obvious on leaf-margins.
Fine examples around the cathedral in 2007
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Monstrosa' [: "monstrous", "strange"], a shrub-elm with fasciated branching, is believed to have originated in France, where it was first listed by Lavallée in Arboretum Segrezianum (1877) as a form of Field Elm, Ulmus campestris var. monstrosa, but without description. Though its long slender 2 cm petiole is not a feature of wych elm U. glabraHuds., and is even less likely in a shrub form of this species, the wych-cultivar error arose early, perhaps because the Späth nursery of Berlin, using Ulmus montana both for some Ulmus × hollandica cultivars and for wych varieties, listed it c.1890 as Ulmus montana monstrosa. Hartwig in Illustrirtes Gehölzbuch (1892) followed with Ulmus scabra monstrosa, an error repeated by Krüssman (1962) and by Green (1964), with their U. glabraHuds. 'Monstrosa'.
The supposed American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Pyramidata' was a Belgian clone listed by Wesmael in Bulletin de la Fédération des sociétés d'horticulture de Belgique, 1862, as Ulmus Americana pyramidalisHort.. It was marketed by the Baudriller nursery, Angers, France, and appeared in their catalogue of 1880 as U. Americana pyramidata. Wesmael's Ulmus americana and Ulmus americana var. variegata, however, do not appear from herbarium specimens to have been American white elm. It is known that nurseries in Europe and America marketed the golden wych elm Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens' as Ulmus americana aurea, so it is possible that Wesmael's Ulmus americana pyramidalis was similarly misnamed.
The so-called American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Variegata' was a Belgian clone mentioned by Wesmael in Bulletin de la Fédération des sociétés d'horticulture de Belgique, 1862, as Ulmus americana var. variegataHort. It was marketed by the Baudriller nursery of Angers as U. americana foliis variegatis. Wesmael's herbarium specimens, however, held in the Botanic Garden, Meise, both of his Ulmus americana and of his Ulmus americana var. variegata, do not appear to show American white elm leaves. It is known that nurseries in Europe and America marketed the golden wych elm Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens' as Ulmus americana aurea, and it is likely that Wesmael's Ulmus americana variegata was similarly misnamed, and perhaps derived from a reverting branch of aurea, whose leaves it resembled.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Albo-Variegata' was first mentioned by Weston in 1770 as U. glabra var. variegata. An U. campestris latifolia albo-variegataHort. was distributed by the Späth nursery, Berlin, from the 1890s to the 1930s.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Corylifolia' was first described by Host in Flora Austriaca (1827). Another cultivar of the same name is described by Zapalowicz, in Conspectus Florae Galiciae Criticus (1908), but was assumed to be 'Cornuta'.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Fastigiata Variegata' was listed in the Baudriller nursery catalogue in 1880.
The cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Insularis' [:'island'], the Ven island elm, a fastigiate form of Wych Elm from Sweden, was identified and described by Nilsson in Lustgården 30: 127. 1949, as U. glabraHuds. f. insularis. Nilsson considered it "closely related to subspecies montana(Stokes) Lindqvist". The cultivar arose from a tree on Ven island in Öresund sound, planted c.1900 between Haken and Husvik, possibly from self-sown local seedlings, and approaching 2 m in girth by the late 1940s.
The Wych elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Latifolia Aureo-Variegata' was first mentioned by Neubert in Deutsches Magazin für Garten- und Blumenkunde 1871 as Ulmus campestrisL.latifolia aureo-variegata.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Nigra', commonly known as the Black Irish Elm, was found in the Kilkenny area c.1770 by the father of nurseryman John Robertson of Kilkenny, who later cultivated it. Robertson stated that he had not seen the form outside Ireland. It was listed by Loddiges (1830) as Ulmus nigra, and described by Loudon in Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum (1838), as Ulmus montana nigra. 'Nigra' is not mentioned in either Elwes and Henry's or Bean's classic works on British trees.
Ulmus × hollandica 'Angustifolia' is one of a number of hybrids arising from the crossing of the Wych Elm U. glabra with a variety of Field Elm U. minor, first identified as Ulmus hollandica var. angustifolia by Weston in The Universal Botanist and Nurseryman 1: 315, 1770.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Eleganto-Variegata' is one of a number of cultivars arising from the crossing of the Wych Elm U. glabra with a variety of Field Elm U. minor. It was first mentioned by Miller in The Gardeners Dictionary (1735), as U. major Hollandica, angustis & magis acuminatis sammaris, folio latissimo scabro, eleganter variegato.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Folia Variegata Pendula' is possibly one of a number of Ulmus × hollandica cultivars arising from the crossing of Wych Elm Ulmus glabra with Field Elm Ulmus minor.
The putative Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Latifolia' was identified in Audibert's Tonelle (1817) as U. campestrisLinn. [ = U. glabraHuds.] latifolia. The tree is reputed to have originated circa 1750 in or around Mechelen, and to have been widely planted throughout Belgium. A 1912 herbarium specimen from Oudenbosch, however, shows a hybrid leaf labelled Ulmus hollandica latifolia.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Pendula Variegata' was first described in 1850, and later by J. F. Wood in The Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist (1851) as U. montana pendula variegata, the 'broad-leaved variegated weeping mountain elm', and was said by him to have originated in and been distributed by the Pontey nursery of Kirkheaton, Huddersfield, Yorkshire. It was listed by Hartwig & Rümpler in Illustrirtes Gehölzbuch (1875) as Ulmus montana (:glabra) var. pendula variegataHort.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Elegantissima' was the name given by A. R. Horwood in his Flora of Leicestershire and Rutland (1933) to an elm found in those counties and later identified by Melville as a natural hybrid between Wych Elm and Plot Elm. According to Melville, the hybrid occurs in the main areas of Plot Elm distribution, where it is more common than Plot Elm itself. The tree is sometimes known simply as the 'Midlands Elm'.
Ulmus glabra 'Australis' is a Wych Elm cultivar described by Loudon in 1838, from a tree in the Royal Horticultural Society garden, as U. montana var. australisHort..
The wych elm cultivar Ulmus glabraHuds. 'Superba', Blandford Elm, with unusually large leaves, was raised by Gill's of Blandford Forum, Dorset, in the early 1840s as Ulmus montana superba and was quickly distributed to other UK nurseries. It was confirmed as a form of wych, and first described, by Lindley in The Gardeners' Chronicle, 1845, later descriptions being added by Gill (1845) and Morren (1848), who called it U. montana var. superba. Morren had adopted the name 'Superba' from the Fulham nurseryman Osborne in 1844, who supplied him with the tree – presumably one of the nurseries supplied by Gill. Morren states that 'Superba', already in cultivation in England, was introduced to Belgium by Denis Henrard of Saint Walburge, Liège, that in 1848 it had been present in Belgium for only three years, and that this variety was the one described as 'Superba' by Osborne, whom Henrard had visited at his nursery in Fulham in September 1844. 'Blandford Elm', with leaves of the same dimensions, was soon for sale in the USA.
References
- ↑ Weston, Richard, The Universal Botanist and Nurseryman 1: 315, 1770
- ↑ Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
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