Ulmus americana 'Beebe's Weeping'

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Ulmus americana 'Beebe's Weeping'
Species Ulmus americana
OriginGalena, Illinois, US

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Beebe's Weeping' was propagated from a tree growing in the wild at Galena, Illinois, by Mr. E. Beebe in the mid-19th century. [1] [2] Thomas Meehan, who had received cuttings and called it 'Weeping Slippery Elm' before the flowers revealed that it was not Ulmus fulva, suggested the name 'Beebe's Weeping Elm', as there were already U. americana clones called 'Pendula'. In the early 20th century it was marketed, however, as Ulmus 'American Galena Weeping', "American Weeping Elm", by the Klehm nursery of Arlington Heights, Illinois. [3]

Contents

Description

'Beebe's Weeping' has thick cord-like branches which curve over as they grow, similar to a Weeping Willow, creating a dome of foliage. A very fast growing cultivar, trees planted at Germantown, Philadelphia, were reputed to gain 6 m (20 ft) per annum. [1] Klehm's top-grafted it at about 8 ft. A photograph of the "weeping willow" form of U. americana appears in Laney's 'The Types of the American elm' (1908; figure 6). [4]

Pests and diseases

No specific information available, but the species as a whole is highly susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease and Elm Yellows; it is also moderately preferred for feeding and reproduction by the adult Elm Leaf Beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola , [5] and highly preferred for feeding by the Japanese Beetle Popillia japonica [6] [7] in the United States. U. americana is also the most susceptible of all the elms to verticillium wilt. [8]

Cultivation

Meehan's specimens at Germantown were about 35 ft tall in 1889, with trunks 3.5 ft in girth, suggesting an origins- and planting-date (at 1 inch girth growth a year) of the mid-19th century. [1] A few specimens are known to survive in the United States, mostly in Illinois where the cultivar originated.[ citation needed ]

A curious 'table top' elm growing in the center of Provo, Utah, planted in 1927 and said to be unique, appears to be less vigorous and more lateral-branched than the cultivar. [9] [10]

Etymology

Named for Mr. E. Beebe, discoverer of the tree.

Synonymy

Related Research Articles

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Augustine Elm cultivar

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Augustine', originally called 'Augustine Ascending', was cloned by Archie M. Augustine of the Augustine Nursery of Bloomington, Illinois, from a nursery seedling planted in 1927 in Normal, Illinois, and found to be columnar in habit.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Exhibition' is a selection made by the Patmore Nurseries from seeds of a tree at Brandon, Manitoba. Released in 1952, 'Exhibition' was propagated by grafting.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Washington', of unknown derivation, was sourced from Princeton Nurseries, Princeton, New Jersey, from 1985, and planted on the National Mall, Washington D.C. It was then selected by H. V. Wester of the U. S. National Park Service and introduced for trials as NPS 3-178. Santamour pointed out that as the historic Washington Elm had been propagated as 'Washington', NPS 3-178, if ever registered as a cultivar, would need a different cultivar name.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Patmore' was selected and raised by R. H. Patmore from a native tree in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. It may be synonymous with another cultivar from the same source, known as 'Brandon'.

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Lewis & Clark Elm cultivar

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Lewis & Clark' is a development from the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Research Foundation breeding programme, released in 2004 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the eponymous expedition. The cultivar was cloned from a tree discovered in 1994 along the Wild Rice River south west of Fargo, North Dakota, where all those around it had succumbed to Dutch elm disease; the tree remains in perfect health (2008). Prairie Expedition proved only moderately successful in the US National Elm Trial, averaging a survival rate of 62.6% overall, potentially due to environmental factors rather than susceptibility to Dutch elm disease.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Littleford' was cloned from a tree in Hinsdale, Illinois, circa 1915 by Littleford Nurseries of Downers Grove, Illinois, and first released in 1927. It was marketed in the 1930s by nearby Hinsdale Nurseries, successor to Littleford Nurseries, as 'Littlefordii'. In their 1925 catalogue Littleford Nurseries had written of their selection: "The growing of the American elm is a specialty with us; we consider it the leading shade and ornamental tree. Our trees are a selected strain of the V-shaped type, a stock of 15 to 20 thousand, all 2 ins. and up in size, transplanted twice and in splendid vigor for planting".

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Moline Elm cultivar

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Moline' was cloned from a wild seedling transplanted to Moline, Illinois, from nearby Rock River Valley in 1903 and propagated from 1916 by the Klehm Nurseries, Arlington Heights, Illinois.

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Aurea Elm cultivar

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Aurea' was cloned from a tree discovered by F. L. Temple in Vermont at the end of the 19th century.

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Columnaris Elm cultivar

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Columnaris' was propagated by R. E. Horsey of the Rochester N.Y. Parks Department from a tree found by Mr John Dunbar at Conesus Lake, New York, in 1911, and originally described as a forma, Ulmus americana L. f. columnaris, f. nov.Rehder (1922). It was the earliest of a number of compact, columnar American elm cultivars, to be followed by 'Ascendens' and 'Augustine Ascendening'.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Fiorei' was raised by the Charles Fiore Nurseries, Prairie View, Illinois, before 1949, and first listed as 'Fiorii', Fiore Elm, without description. It is no longer listed by the company.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Kimley' was cloned c.1957 by the Sheridan Nurseries, Mississauga, Canada, from a large tree found near Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Morden' was cloned from a selection made by the Dominion Experimental Farm, Morden, Manitoba, in 1939 on account of its ability to withstand severe ice storms without breakage.

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Pendula Elm cultivar

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Pendula' was originally listed by William Aiton in Hort. Kew, 1: 320, 1789, as U. americana var. pendula, cloned in England in 1752 by James Gordon. From the 1880s the Späth nursery of Berlin supplied a cultivar at first listed as Ulmus fulva (Michx.) pendulaHort., which in their 1899 catalogue was queried as a possible variety of U. americana, and which thereafter appeared in their early 20th-century catalogues as U. americana pendula. The Scampston Elm, Ulmus × hollandica 'Scampstoniensis', in cultivation on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th and 20th centuries, was occasionally referred to as 'American Weeping Elm' or Ulmus americana pendula. This cultivar, however, was distinguished by Späth from his Ulmus americana pendula.

<i>Ulmus americana</i> Burgoyne Elm cultivar

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Burgoyne' stood at the Arnold Arboretum until removed in 1988. Grown for the town of Weston, Massachusetts, the tree was raised in 1965 by Dr. Donald Wyman, retired head horticulturist of Arnold Arboretum, from seeds of the historic Burgoyne Elm, that stood for c.300 years at 626 Boston Post Road, Weston, before being felled in 1967 In October 1777 a contingent of British prisoners-of-war from General Burgoyne's defeated army, captured by General Gates, bivouacked under the original tree, then nearly a century old, on their way to prison in Somerville.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Iowa State' was cloned in the 1980s from a tree discovered by Professor Alexander (Sandy) McNabb of Iowa State University as the sole survivor in 40 acres (16 ha) of diseased elm at Burlington.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'L'Assomption' was selected from seedlings grown from X-irradiated seed at the eponymous experimental station in Quebec before 1965.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Jackson' was cloned c.1990 from an elm selected at Wichita, Kansas, which had reputedly shewn no signs of Dutch elm disease damage at over 50 years of age.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Flick's Spreader' was cloned from a tree discovered by John T. Flick on a farm near Hammon, Oklahoma. Cuttings were given to the Sunshine Nursery, Clinton, Oklahoma, in 1997, which later marketed the tree as 'Flick's Spreader'.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Creole Queen' was cloned from a tree growing outside New Orleans and was released in 2008.

The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Miller Park' is a selection made by the University of Minnesota. Originally identified as MNT-0365, it was cloned from an old elm surviving in Hennepin County, Minnesota. 'Miller Park' is currently (2016) being researched but no data have yet been published. The tree is named for the eponymous park in Eden Prairie, in the environs of Minneapolis.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sargent, Charles Sprague (1889). Garden and Forest. Garden and Forest Publishing Company. p. 286.
  2. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  3. Klehm's Nurseries, Season of 1910, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 1910, p.12
  4. Laney, C. C., 'The types of the American elm', The Garden Magazine, April 1908, p.155; trees.umn.edu
  5. Miller, Fredric; Ware, George (2001-02-01). "Resistance of Temperate Chinese Elms (Ulmus spp.) to Feeding by the Adult Elm Leaf Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)". Journal of Economic Entomology. Oxford University Press (OUP). 94 (1): 162–166. doi: 10.1603/0022-0493-94.1.162 . ISSN   0022-0493. PMID   11233108. S2CID   42980569.
  6. Miller, Fredric; Ware, George; Jackson, Jennifer (2001-04-01). "Preference of Temperate Chinese Elms ( Ulmus spp.) for the Adult Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)". Journal of Economic Entomology. Oxford University Press (OUP). 94 (2): 445–448. doi: 10.1603/0022-0493-94.2.445 . ISSN   0022-0493. PMID   11332837. S2CID   7520439.
  7. "Elm Leaf Beetle Survey". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  8. Pegg, G. F. & Brady, B. L. (2002). Verticillium Wilts. CABI Publishing. ISBN   0-85199-529-2
  9. 'Utah County working to protect one-of-a-kind tree' ksl.com.news
  10. jacobbarlow.com/2014/04/01/oldest-weeping-american-elm-provo-ut/ 'Oldest Weeping American Elm, Provo, UT'