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.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × intermedia 'Coolshade' is an American hybrid cultivar cloned from a crossing of the Slippery, or Red, Elm Ulmus rubra and the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila at the Sarcoxie Nurseries, Sarcoxie, Missouri, in 1946. At Arnold Arboretum, where there was a specimen, herbarium material was labelled Ulmus pumila 'Coolshade'.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Green King' was once believed to have been derived from a crossing of the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila with the American Red Elm Ulmus rubra. However, it is now apparent the tree originated as a sport of U. pumila in 1939 at the Neosho Nurseries, Neosho, Missouri.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Chinkota' was developed from seed of the cultivar 'Dropmore' by the Horticulture & Forestry Department of South Dakota State University c.1955, as one of a seed-produced line of extremely cold-hardy and drought-resistant trees for use in the Great Plains.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Dropmore' was grown from seed collected in Harbin, Manchuria, China, by F. L. Skinner, of Dropmore, Manitoba. Green reported (1964) a suggestion to merge the Siberian elm cultivars 'Harbin' and 'Manchu' with 'Dropmore', as all came from the Harbin area. In the event, 'Dropmore' appears to have superseded these earlier cultivars.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Hansen' is a little-known American tree of obscure origin, possibly raised from seed collected by the horticulturist and botanist Prof. Niels Hansen during his expedition to Siberia in 1897.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Park Royal' is a cold-hardy selection raised by the Sheridan Nursery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Manchu' was raised by Stewarts Nurseries, Sutherland, Saskatchewan, c. 1951 from seed collected by Mr Ptitsin from near Harbin, China, an area which has a similar climate to that of the Great Plains. Green reported (1964) a suggestion to merge 'Manchu' and the Siberian elm cultivar 'Harbin' with 'Dropmore', as all came from the same area.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus 'Den Haag' is a Dutch development derived from a chance crossing of the Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Pinnato-ramosa' and the Belgian Elm Ulmus × hollandica 'Belgica'. S. G. A. Doorenbos (1891-1980), Director of Public Parks in The Hague, finding that seeds he had sown in 1936 from the Zuiderpark 'Pinnato-ramosa' had hybridized with the local 'Belgica', selected six for trials. The best was cloned and grafted on 'Belgica' rootstock as 'Den Haag'; it was planted first in that city, then released to nurseries elsewhere in the Netherlands. The other five were also planted in The Hague.
The Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Ansaloni' was raised by the Ansaloni Nurseries, Bologna, c. 1933, from a tree introduced from the Far East in 1930.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Pendula' is from northern China, where it is known as Lung chao yü shu. It was classified by Frank Meyer in Fengtai in 1908, and introduced to the United States by him from the Peking Botanical Garden as Weeping Chinese Elm. The USDA plant inventory record (1916) noted that it was a "rare variety even in China". It was confirmed as an U. pumila cultivar by Krüssmann (1962).
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Pyramidalis Fiorei' was cloned by the Charles Fiorei Nurseries of Prairie View, Illinois, c. 1957 from a tree growing in nursery grounds.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus 'Hamburg' was originally raised by the Plumfield Nurseries, Fremont, Nebraska, circa 1932, after its discovery by Mr. Lloyd Moffet in a bed of Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila seedlings from Tekamah. It was later marketed by Interstate Nurseries, Hamburg, Iowa, from 1948, as 'Interstate's New Hamburg Hybrid Elm'. Green stated that it was originally said be a hybrid of Ulmus pumila and Ulmus americana, but the Hamburg Nurseries of Iowa made no such claim for it in their catalogues from 1948 onwards. It is now considered more likely that Ulmus rubra was the male parent, as it was also known as 'Hybrid Chinese Elm', and therefore probably synonymous with Plumfield Nurseries' 'Hybrid elm' of the same date, a known crossing of U. pumila and U. rubra, – and so, perhaps, also synonymous with Ulmus × intermedia 'Fremont', an elm of the same parentage found a little later in Plumfield Nurseries.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × intermedia 'Willis' originated as a crossing made by a Mr Minnick of Kansas. Almost certainly derived from a crossing of the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila and the Red Elm Ulmus rubra, it was originally believed that the male parent was the American Elm Ulmus americana.
The hybrid cultivar Ulmus 'Androssowii'R. Kam., an elm of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan sometimes referred to in old travel books as 'Turkestan Elm' or as 'karagach' [:black tree, = elm], its local name, is probably an artificial hybrid. According to Lozina-Lozinskaia the tree is unknown in the wild in Uzbekistan, and apparently arose from a crossing of U. densa var. bubyrianaLitv., which it resembles, and the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila. It is sometimes listed as Ulmus × androssowii.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Mr. Buzz' is a selection made by the Westerveldt Tree Co. of Selma, Alabama.
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 Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila was known as 'Aurea' was released by the Honze nursery in China shortly before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Its former cultivarname was not accepted by E.N.A. and thus changed into ‘’Beijing Gold’’ although the species is a cultivar from U. pumila, it is falsely advertised as a 'Chinese Elm', which is U. parvifolia.
Ulmus pumila, or 'Poort Bulten,' is a Siberian elm cultivar that hails from Arboretum Poort Bulten in Losser, Netherlands. This tree was for many years mistaken for Planera aquatica or 'water elm' and commercially propagated under that name.
