Ulmus macrocarpa | |
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Morton Arboretum accession 589-54*3 | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Ulmaceae |
Genus: | Ulmus |
Subgenus: | U. subg. Ulmus |
Section: | U. sect. Ulmus |
Species: | U. macrocarpa |
Binomial name | |
Ulmus macrocarpa | |
Synonyms | |
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Ulmus macrocarpaHance, the large-fruited elm, is a deciduous tree or large shrub endemic to the Far East excluding Japan. It is notable for its tolerance of drought and extreme cold and is the predominant vegetation on the dunes of the Khorchin sandy lands in the Jilin province of north-eastern China, making a small tree at the base of the dunes, and a shrub at the top .
By the age of ten years, the tree bears a close resemblance to the American elm U. americana, but will never approach the latter's size. The tree can reach a height of 17 m, with a slender trunk rarely exceeding 0.4 m d.b.h; the bark is longitudinally fissured, and dark grey in colour. The twigs often develop corky wings that may persist for several years. The leaves are usually obovate < 9 cm long by 5 cm broad [2] [3] (significantly smaller on juvenile trees) and chiefly characterized by their thick, leathery texture and obtusely doubly or simply toothed margins. The perfect, wind-pollinated apetalous flowers appear from March until May. As implied by its name, U. macrocarpa is distinguished by its large, orbicular, wafer-like samarae < 50 mm in diameter, which ripen in May and June. [4] [5]
Possessed of a moderate resistance to Dutch elm disease and a low susceptibility to elm yellows, it has also proven very resistant to the elm leaf beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola in trials in Oklahoma and Italy. [6]
U. macrocarpa was introduced to the UK at Aldenham House in Hertfordshire in the late 19th century by Vicary Gibbs (1853–1932), [7] almost certainly as part of the quincunx elm avenue leading to the front of the house. [8] The tree was propagated and marketed in the UK by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire, from 1949, with 47 sold from 1962 to 1977. [9] [10]
The tree was introduced to the United States at the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts, in 1908. It has been assessed at the Morton Arboretum, Illinois, for its landscape potential, and is now considered suitable for open areas such as parks and campuses. [11] Typically, U. macrocarpa is intolerant of poorly drained ground prone to waterlogging, but has been found to be the most cold hardy of the Chinese elms in artificial freezing tests at the Morton Arboretum, the LT50 (temp. at which 50% of tissues die) was - 36 °C. [12]
Two varieties are recognized: var. glabra Nie & Huang and var. macrocarpa L.K.Fu
A natural hybrid of U. macrocarpa and U. davidiana var. japonica, named Ulmus × mesocarpa was discovered in South Korea in the 1980s. U. macrocarpa is believed to have been used in recent (post 2000) hybridization experiments at the Morton Arboretum [6] but results have yet (2008) to be published. There are no known cultivars of this taxon.
Ulmus thomasii, the rock elm or cork elm, is a deciduous tree native primarily to the Midwestern United States. The tree ranges from southern Ontario and Quebec, south to Tennessee, west to northeastern Kansas, and north to Minnesota.
Ulmus crassifoliaNutt., the Texas cedar elm or simply cedar elm, is a deciduous tree native to south-central North America, mainly in southern and eastern Texas, southern Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, with small populations in western Mississippi, southwest Tennessee, and north-central Florida; it also occurs in northeastern Mexico. It is the most common elm tree in Texas. The tree typically grows well in flat valley bottom areas referred to as cedar elm flats. The common name cedar elm is derived from the trees' association with juniper trees, locally known as cedars.
Ulmus pumila, the Siberian elm, is a tree native to Asia. It is also known as the Asiatic elm and dwarf elm, but sometimes miscalled the 'Chinese elm'. U. pumila has been widely cultivated throughout Asia, North America, Argentina, and southern Europe, becoming naturalized in many places, notably across much of the United States.
Ulmus wallichianaPlanch., the Himalayan elm, also known as the Kashmir elm and Bhutan elm, is a mountain tree ranging from central Nuristan in Afghanistan, through northern Pakistan and northern India to western Nepal at elevations of 800–3000 m. Although dissimilar in appearance, its common name is occasionally used in error for the cherry bark elm Ulmus villosa, which is also endemic to the Kashmir, but inhabits the valleys, not the mountain slopes. The species is closely related to the wych elm U. glabra.
Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, the Japanese elm, is one of the larger and more graceful Asiatic elms, endemic to much of continental northeast Asia and Japan, where it grows in swamp forest on young alluvial soils, although much of this habitat has now been lost to intensive rice cultivation.
Ulmus bergmannianaC.K.Schneid., commonly known as Bergmann's elm, is a deciduous tree found across much of China in forests at elevations of 1500–3000 m.
Ulmus castaneifoliaHemsley, the chestnut-leafed elm or multinerved elm, is a small deciduous tree found across much of China in broadleaved forests at elevations of 500–1,600 metres (1,600–5,200 ft).
Ulmus laciniata(Trautv.) Mayr, known variously as the Manchurian, cut-leaf, or lobed elm, is a deciduous tree native to the humid ravine forests of Japan, Korea, northern China, eastern Siberia and Sakhalin, growing alongside Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Aesculus turbinata, and Pterocarya rhoifolia, at elevations of 700–2200 m, though sometimes lower in more northern latitudes, notably in Hokkaido.
Ulmus uyematsuiHayata, commonly known as the Alishan elm, is endemic to forests at elevations of 800–2,500 metres (2,600–8,200 ft) in Alishan, Chiayi County, central Taiwan, where it is considered one of the minor tree species. The tree was first named and described by the Japanese botanist Bunzō Hayata in 1913, in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, when the Republic of Formosa was ceded to Japan.
Ulmus lamellosa, commonly called the Hebei elm, is a small deciduous tree native to four Chinese provinces, Hebei, Henan, Nei Mongol, and Shanxi, to the west and south of Beijing.
Ulmus chenmouiW. C. Cheng, commonly known as the Chenmou, or Langya Mountain elm, is a small deciduous tree from the more temperate provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu in eastern China, where it is found at elevations below 200 m on the Langya Shan and Baohua Shan mountains. The tree was unknown in the West until 1979, when seeds were sent from Beijing to the De Dorschkamp research institute at Wageningen in the Netherlands.
Ulmus davidiana, also known as the David elm, or Father David elm, is a small deciduous tree widely distributed across China, Mongolia, Korea, Siberia, and Japan, where it is found in wetlands along streams at elevations of 2000–2300 m (6,500–7,500 ft). The tree was first described in 1873 from the hills north of Beijing, China.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Belgica', one of a number of hybrids arising from the crossing of Wych Elm with a variety of Field Elm, was reputedly raised in the nurseries of the Abbey of the Dunes, Veurne, in 1694. Popular throughout Belgium and the Netherlands in the 19th century both as an ornamental and as a shelter-belt tree, it was the 'Hollandse iep' in these countries, as distinct from the tree known as 'Dutch Elm' in Great Britain and Ireland since the 17th century: Ulmus × hollandica 'Major'. In Francophone Belgium it was known as orme gras de Malines.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Crispa' [:'curled', the leaf margin], sometimes known as the Fernleaf Elm, arose before 1800 and was first listed by Willdenow as U. crispa (1809). Audibert listed an U. campestrisLinn. 'Crispa', orme à feuilles crépues [:'frizzy-leaved elm'], in 1817, and an Ulmus urticaefolia [:'nettle-leaved elm'] in 1832; the latter is usually taken to be a synonym. Loudon considered the tree a variety of U. montana (1838). In the 19th century, Ulmus × hollandica cultivars, as well as those of Wych Elm, were often grouped under Ulmus montana. Elwes and Henry (1913) listed 'Crispa' as a form of wych elm, but made no mention of the non-wych samara.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Propendens', described by Schneider in 1904 as U. glabra (:minor) var. suberosa propendens, Weeping Cork-barked elm, was said by Krüssmann (1976) to be synonymous with the U. suberosa pendula listed by Lavallée without description in 1877. Earlier still, Loudon's Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum had included an illustration of a pendulous "cork-barked field elm", U. campestris suberosa. An U. campestris suberosa pendula was in nurseries by the 1870s.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Argenteo-Variegata' or simply 'Variegata', known in Australasia and North America as Silver Elm or Tartan Elm, is said to have been cultivated in France from 1772. Green noted that variegated forms of Field Elm "arise frequently, and several clones may have been known under this name". Dumont de Courset (1802) listed an U. campestris var. glabra variegata, Loudon (1838) an U. nitens var. variegata, and Wesmael (1863) an U. campestris var. nuda microphylla variegata.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Microphylla Pendula', the Weeping small-leaved elm, was first listed by the Travemünde nursery, Lübeck, and described by Kirchner in Petzold & Kirchner's Arboretum Muscaviense (1864), as Ulmus microphylla pendulaHort.. By the 1870s it was being marketed in nurseries in Europe and America as Ulmus campestris var. microphylla pendula.
Ulmus bergmanniana var. lasiophyllaC. K. Schneid. is endemic to China, on mountain slopes at elevations of 2100–2900 m in Gansu, Shaanxi, north-west Sichuan, south-east Xizang, and north-west Yunnan.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Pinnato-ramosa' was raised by Georg Dieck, as Ulmus pinnato-ramosa, at the National Arboretum, Zöschen, Germany, from seed collected for him circa 1890 in the Ili valley, Turkestan by the lawyer and amateur naturalist Vladislav E. Niedzwiecki while in exile there. Litvinov (1908) treated it as a variety of Siberian elm, U. pumilavar.arborea but this taxon was ultimately rejected by Green, who sank the tree as a cultivar: "in modern terms, it does not warrant recognition at this rank but is a variant of U. pumila maintained and known only in cultivation, and therefore best treated as a cultivar". Herbarium specimens confirm that trees in cultivation in the 20th century as U. pumilaL. var. arboreaLitv. were no different from 'Pinnato-ramosa'.
Ulmus parvifolia, commonly known as the Chinese elm or lacebark elm, is a species native to eastern Asia, including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has been described as "one of the most splendid elms, having the poise of a graceful Nothofagus".