Ulmus minor 'Sarniensis' | |
---|---|
Species | Ulmus minor |
Cultivar | 'Sarniensis' |
Origin | Guernsey, or Brittany |
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Sarniensis', known variously as Guernsey elm, Jersey elm, [1] Wheatley elm, [2] [3] or Southampton elm, [4] was first described by MacCulloch in 1815 from trees on Guernsey, [5] and was planted in the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens in the 1820s. [3] It was listed in the Loddiges catalogue of 1836 as Ulmus sarniensis and by Loudon in Hortus lignosus londinensis (1838) as U. campestris var. sarniensis. [6] [7] The origin of the tree remains obscure; Richens believed it "a mutant of a French population of Field elm", noting that "elms of similar leaf-form occur in Cotentin and in northern Brittany. They vary much in habit but some have a tendency to pyramidal growth. Whether the distinctive habit first developed on the mainland or in Guernsey is uncertain." [8]
Melville, believing the cultivar a hybrid between Cornish elm U. minor 'Stricta' and Dutch elm Ulmus × hollandica, adopted the name U. × sarniensis (Loud.) Bancroft. [9] [10] Its clonal origin is (to date) suspected rather than proved, but the apparent uniformity of this taxon makes it likely to be a clone. A number of specimens in northern Britain were DNA-tested in 2013 by Forest Research, Roslin, Midlothian, and were found to be the same clone. [11] Arguing in a 2002 paper that there was no clear distinction between species and subspecies, and suggesting that known or suspected clones of U. minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, Dr Max Coleman of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh preferred the designation U. minor 'Sarniensis'. [12]
Guernsey elm was often misnamed 'Cornish elm' in the UK by the local authorities who planted it extensively. [13] [3] It was sometimes confused in continental Europe with the similar 'Monumentalis'. [14] [15] ('Sarniensis' is known as monumentaaliep [:monumental elm] in The Netherlands. [16] [17] )
The tree has a compact, columnar form, not dissimilar to the Lombardy Poplar. Rarely exceeding a height of 27 m, the tree has long stiff ascending branches forming a narrow pyramidal crown. [18] [19] Older specimens broaden round the 'waist', giving trees with a tapering crown a Chianti-flask shape. Like Cornish elm, a narrow-crowned elm from the same area, Guernsey elm is one of the last British trees to come into leaf, and it retains its dark, lustrous foliage into early winter. In favourable conditions it turns a rich golden-yellow in late November or early December. [20] The small leaves and samarae are similar to those of the field elm group in general. [21] Like others of the group, the tree suckers very freely, though it is often base-grafted on wych elm to prevent suckering. The tree often develops highly distinctive cancerous burls on its branches or trunk.
Guernsey elm is very susceptible to Dutch elm disease.
With its light, upcurving branches, Guernsey elm never became a danger, unlike English elm, which sometimes shed heavy lateral boughs. This fact, and its compact form, made it ideal for street planting. The tree was popular in Britain, where it was widely cultivated. Dutch elm disease has, however, now destroyed nearly all the mature trees in England save a few in Brighton, Bridlington, Peasholm Park, Scarborough and a single tree in Skegness. Around a hundred mature specimens still survive in Edinburgh, Scotland (2013). It was introduced to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight by Albert the Prince Consort, where it survives today as suckers along the lane leading to Barton Manor Farm. Guernsey elm was also planted in large numbers across Amsterdam, but eventually replaced by the similarly fastigiate but much more disease-resistant clone, 'Columella'. [22] [23]
One tree, supplied by the Späth nursery, [24] was planted in 1897 as U. campestris sarniensis at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Canada. [25] 'Sarniensis' was introduced to the United States, featuring in the 1904 catalogue of Frederick W. Kelsey as Ulmus Wheatlyi. [26] In the catalogue of the Plumfield Nursery of Fremont, Nebraska, 1934, its origin was given as Holland. It was described as "a round-headed tree with small glossy leaves, [which] hybridized with American White Elm" (: Ulmus americana ), a crossing that would seem unlikely given the ploidy differences. [27] 'Sarniensis' remains in cultivation in the Morton Arboretum. [28] The Ulmus monumentalis introduced to Australia in 1873 is thought to have been 'Sarniensis'. [29]
Elwes considered the Richmond public gardens 'Wheatley', c.90 ft. tall, the finest he had seen. [4] Among the largest surviving specimens of Guernsey elm in the UK are one in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh (2017), bole-girth 3 m, and the one in Preston Park, Brighton. The latter is 34 m tall with a trunk 115 cm d.b.h. (diameter at breast height) in 2006, part of a line of trees averaging 30 m in height planted circa 1880. As of June 2020, the specimen beside the cafe in Blakers Park, Brighton, has become the 'national champion', according to the National Elm Collection, following the felling of the Preston Park specimen. The tallest on record in the UK stands on Paradise Drive, Eastbourne and had a height of 36 m in 2007.
In North America, the tree lines West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [30]
The tree is named for the Channel Island of Guernsey (Sarnia was the Roman name for Guernsey), where it may have originated. A similar tree is found along the Brittany coast, referred to in several 18th and 19th century French treatises as l'Orme male [31] [32] owing to its phallic resemblance; it is still sometimes referred to as the male elm in Guernsey, although no mature trees survive there either. The synonym Wheatley elm was derived from a tree planted at Wheatley Park, Doncaster, where it was introduced and propagated by Sir William Cooke in the early 19th century. [2] [3] The earliest known use of the name Wheatley elm occurs in the 1869 catalogue of Simon-Louis, Metz. [33] [4] The tree was also raised in great numbers at the Rogers nursery in Southampton in the late 1800s, [4] which probably explains the synonym Southampton elm. Although the tree is also known as the Jersey elm, its introduction from Guernsey has been clearly chronicled. Wilkinson (1978) mentions that some botanists distinguished between 'var. wheatleyi' and 'Jersey elm', [34] presumably the result of slight mutations in the course of repeated propagation. [35]
Some authorities consider 'Dickson's Golden Elm' a form of Guernsey elm. The nursery Messieurs Otin père et fils of Saint-Étienne sold an Ulmus Wheatleyi aurea pyramidalis, with leaves marbled yellow, in 1882. [37]
None known.
The field elm cultivar 'Atinia' , commonly known as the English elm, formerly common elm and horse may, and more lately the Atinian elm, was, before the spread of Dutch elm disease, the most common field elm in central southern England, though not native there, and one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe. R. H. Richens noted that elm populations exist in north-west Spain and northern Portugal, and on the Mediterranean coast of France that "closely resemble the English elm" and appear to be "trees of long standing" in those regions rather than recent introductions. Augustine Henry had earlier noted that the supposed English elms planted extensively in the Royal Park at Aranjuez from the late 16th century onwards, specimens said to have been introduced from England by Philip II and "differing in no respects from the English elm in England", behaved as native trees in Spain. He suggested that the tree "may be a true native of Spain, indigenous in the alluvial plains of the great rivers, now almost completely deforested".
Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta', sometimes known as the Huntingdon Elm, is an old English hybrid cultivar raised at Brampton, near Huntingdon, by nurserymen Wood & Ingram in 1746, allegedly from seed collected at nearby Hinchingbrooke Park. In Augustine Henry's day, in the later 19th century, the elms in Hinchingbrooke Park were U. nitens. Richens, noting that wych elm is rare in Huntingdonshire, normally flowering four to six weeks later than field elm, pointed out that unusually favourable circumstances would have had to coincide to produce such seed: "It is possible that, some time in the eighteenth century, the threefold requirements of synchronous flowering of the two species, a south-west wind", "and a mild spring permitting the ripening of the samaras, were met."
Ulmus minorMill., the field elm, is by far the most polymorphic of the European species, although its taxonomy remains a matter of contention. Its natural range is predominantly south European, extending to Asia Minor and Iran; its northern outposts are the Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland, although it may have been introduced by humans. The tree's typical habitat is low-lying forest along the main rivers, growing in association with oak and ash, where it tolerates summer floods as well as droughts.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Stricta', known as Cornish elm, was commonly found in South West England, Brittany, and south-west Ireland, until the arrival of Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. The origin of Cornish elm in the south-west of Britain remains a matter of contention. It is commonly assumed to have been introduced from Brittany. It is also considered possible that the tree may have survived the ice ages on lands to the south of Cornwall long since lost to the sea. Henry thought it "probably native in the south of Ireland". Dr Max Coleman of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, arguing in his 2002 paper on British elms that there was no clear distinction between species and subspecies, suggested that known or suspected clones of Ulmus minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, preferred the designation U. minor 'Stricta' to Ulmus minor var. stricta. The DNA of 'Stricta' has been investigated and the cultivar is now known to be a clone.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Plotii', commonly known as Lock elm or Lock's elm, Plot's elm or Plot elm, and first classified as Ulmus sativaMill. var. Lockii and later as Ulmus plotii by Druce in 1907-11, is endemic mainly to the East Midlands of England, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire, in the Trent Valley around Newark-on-Trent, and around the village of Laxton, Northamptonshire. Ronald Melville suggested that the tree's distribution may be related to river valley systems, in particular those of the Trent, Witham, Welland, and Nene. Two further populations existed in Gloucestershire. It has been described as Britain's rarest native elm, and recorded by The Wildlife Trust as a nationally scarce species.
Ulmus × hollandica 'Major' is a distinctive cultivar that in England came to be known specifically as theDutch Elm, although all naturally occurring Field Elm Ulmus minor × Wych Elm U. glabra hybrids are loosely termed 'Dutch elm'. It is also known by the cultivar name 'Hollandica'. Nellie Bancroft considered 'Major' either an F2 hybrid or a backcrossing with one of its parents.
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.
Ulmus 'Exoniensis', the Exeter elm, was discovered near Exeter, England, in 1826, and propagated by the Ford & Please nursery in that city. Traditionally believed to be a cultivar of the Wych Elm U. glabra, its fastigiate shape when young, upward-curving tracery, small samarae and leaves, late leaf-flush and late leaf-fall, taken with its south-west England provenance, suggest a link with the Cornish Elm, which shares these characteristics. The seed, however, is on the stalk side of the samara, a feature of wych elm and its cultivars, whereas in hybrids it would be displaced towards the notch.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Purpurea', the purple-leaved elm, was listed and described as Ulmus Stricta Purpurea, the 'Upright Purpled-leaved Elm', by John Frederick Wood, F.H.S., in The Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist (1851), as Ulmus purpureaHort. by Wesmael (1863), and as Ulmus campestris var. purpurea, syn. Ulmus purpureaHort. by Petzold and Kirchner in Arboretum Muscaviense (1864). Koch's description followed (1872), the various descriptions appearing to tally. Henry (1913) noted that the Ulmus campestris var. purpureaPetz. & Kirchn. grown at Kew as U. montana var. purpurea was "probably of hybrid origin", Ulmus montana being used at the time both for wych elm cultivars and for some of the U. × hollandica group. His description of Kew's U. montana var. purpurea matches that of the commonly-planted 'Purpurea' of the 20th century. His discussion of it (1913) under U. campestris, however, his name for English Elm, may be the reason why 'Purpurea' is sometimes erroneously called U. procera 'Purpurea' (as in USA and Sweden.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Berardii', Berard's Elm, was raised in 1865, as Ulmus Berardi, from seeds collected from large specimens of "common elm" growing on the ramparts at Metz, by an employee of the Simon-Louis nursery named Bérard. Carrière (1887), the Späth nursery of Berlin and the Van Houtte nursery of Gentbrugge regarded it as form of a Field Elm, listing it as U. campestris Berardii, the name used by Henry. Cheal's nursery of Crawley distributed it as Ulmus nitens [:Ulmus minor] 'Berardii'. Smith's of Worcester preferred the original, non-specific name, Ulmus 'Berardii'.
Ulmus 'Louis van Houtte' is believed to have been first cultivated in Ghent, Belgium circa 1863. It was first mentioned by Franz Deegen in 1886. It was once thought a cultivar of English Elm Ulmus minor 'Atinia', though this derivation has long been questioned; W. J. Bean called it "an elm of uncertain status". Its dissimilarity from the type and its Belgian provenance make the 'Atinia' attribution unlikely. Fontaine (1968) considered it probably a form of U. × hollandica.
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.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Pendula' was said to have been raised in Belgium in 1863. It was listed as Ulmus sativa pendula by C. de Vos in 1887, and by Boom in 1959 as a cultivar.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Scampstoniensis', the Scampston Elm or Scampston Weeping Elm, is said to have come from Scampston Hall, Yorkshire, England, before 1810. Loudon opined that a tree of the same name at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden in 1834, 18 feet (5.5 m) high at 8 years old "differed little from the species". Henry described the tree, from a specimen growing in Victoria Park, Bath, as "a weeping form of U. nitens" [:Ulmus minor ]; however Green considered it "probably a form of Ulmus × hollandica". Writing in 1831, Loudon said that the tree was supposed to have originated in America. U. minor is not, however, an American species, so if the tree was brought from America, it must originally have been taken there from Europe. There was an 'American Plantation' at Scampston, which may be related to this supposition. A number of old specimens of 'Scampstoniensis' in this plantation were blown down in a great gale of October 1881; younger specimens were still present at Scampston in 1911.
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'.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Dicksonii', commonly known as Dickson's Golden Elm, is a yellow-leaved tree raised in Chester in 1900 by Dickson's Nursery, which distributed it from the autumn of 1907 as 'Golden Cornish Elm'. 'Cornish Elm' was the name often given in error to Guernsey or Wheatley Elm by the local authorities who planted the latter extensively, an error which may have influenced the choice of name by Dickson's nursery. 'Dicksonii' is usually listed as a variety of Guernsey Elm rather than Cornish Elm, Bean giving 'Wheatleyi Aurea' as a synonym, and Hillier 'Sarniensis Aurea' and later U. × sarniensis 'Dicksonii'. Clibrans' nursery of Altrincham, however, described it (1922) as otherwise identical "in habit and constitution" to 'type' Cornish Elm. The Späth nursery of Berlin distributed it from c.1913 as U. campestris cornubiensis Dicksonii. The nursery Messieurs Otin père et fils of Saint-Étienne sold an Ulmus Wheatleyi aurea pyramidalis, with leaves marbled yellow, in 1882, earlier than Dickson's introduction.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Suberosa', commonly known as the Cork-barked elm, is a slow-growing or dwarf form of conspicuously suberose Field Elm. Of disputed status, it is considered a distinct variety by some botanists, among them Henry (1913), Krüssmann (1984), and Bean (1988), and is sometimes cloned and planted as a cultivar. Henry said the tree "appears to be a common variety in the forests of central Europe", Bean noting that it "occurs in dry habitats". By the proposed rule that known or suspected clones of U. minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, the tree would be designated U. minor 'Suberosa'. The Späth nursery of Berlin distributed an U. campestris suberosa alataKirchn. [:'corky-winged'] from the 1890s to the 1930s.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Viminalis' (:'willow-like'), occasionally referred to as the twiggy field elm, was raised by Masters in 1817, and listed in 1831 as U. campestris viminalis, without description. Loudon added a general description in 1838, and the Cambridge University Herbarium acquired a leaf specimen of the tree in 1866. Moss, writing in 1912, said that the Ulmus campestris viminalis from Cambridge University Herbarium was the only elm he thought agreed with the original Plot's elm as illustrated by Dr. Plot in 1677 from specimens growing in an avenue and coppice at Hanwell near Banbury. Elwes and Henry (1913) also considered Loudon's Ulmus campestris viminalis to be Dr Plot's elm. Its 19th-century name, U. campestris var. viminalis, led the cultivar to be classified for a time as a variety of English Elm. On the Continent, 'Viminalis' was the Ulmus antarcticaHort., 'zierliche Ulme' [:'dainty elm'] of Kirchner's Arboretum Muscaviense (1864).
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Turkestanica' was first described by Regel as U. turkestanica in Dieck, Hauptcat. Baumschul. Zöschen (1883) and in Gartenflora (1884). Regel himself stressed that "U. turkestanica was only a preliminary name given by me; I regard this as a form of U. suberosa" [:U. minor ]. Litvinov considered U. turkestanicaRegel a variety of his U. densa, adding that its fruits were "like those of U. foliaceaGilibert" [:U. minor].
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Monumentalis', the tomb elm (Grabmal-Rüster), was raised as a sucker of U. suberosa by Sebastian Rinz, the city gardener of Frankfurt, before 1855 and listed by the Jacob-Makoy nursery of Liège in their 1861 catalogue as Ulmus monumentalisRinz, "a new variety". Kirchner (1864) described it, confirming that it had only recently been propagated by Rinz and established in the nursery. It was distributed from the 1880s by the Baudriller nursery, Angers, and by the Späth nursery, Berlin, as U. campestris monumentalisRinz., appearing separately in their catalogues from U. minor 'Sarniensis', the Guernsey or Wheatley Elm, with which, according to Henry, it was confused on the continent. Krüssmann, for example, gives 'Monumentalis' as a synonym of 'Sarniensis'. 'Sarniensis' is known as monumentaaliep [:monumental elm] in The Netherlands. Springer noted that the Dutch monumentaaliep was "not the actual monumentaaliep but U. glabraMill.var. Wheatleyi Sim. Louis", and that it "should be renamed U. glabraMill. var. monumentalisHort.(non Rinz)". In England, Smith's of Worcester listed Ulmus monumentalis separately from Ulmus 'Wheatley' in the 1880s.