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Ulmus minor
Also called European Field Elm, Field Elm, Smoothleaf Elm, Common Elm, English Cork Elm, English Elm, Lock Elm
Ulmus minor Mill., 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.
Current treatment of the species owes much to Richens, who noted (1983) that several varieties of field elm are distinguishable on the European mainland. Of these, he listed the small-leaved U. minor of France and Spain; the narrow-leaved U. minor of northern and central Italy; the densely hairy leaved U. minor of southern Italy and Greece; the U.
U. minor in general and a number of clones in particular (see 'Cultivars' below) were once commonly cultivated across Europe in town and country, but owing to its susceptibility to Dutch elm disease, U. minor is now uncommon in cultivation. However, in an ongoing project that began in the 1990s, several thousand surviving field elms have been tested for innate resistance by national research institutes in the EU, with a view to returning field elm to cultivation. Results from Spain (2013), for example, confirm that a very small number of surviving field elms (about 0.5% of those tested) appear to have comparatively high levels of tolerance of the disease, and it is hoped that a controlled crossing of the best of these will produce resistant Ulmus minor hybrids for cultivation.
In the UK, despite its late leaf-flush in the north and its suckering habits, continental U. minor was occasionally planted as an ornamental urban tree. Augustine Henry wrote in 1913 that “In all probability many of” the U. minor planted in parks in Scotland were of French origin. More recently U.
Winged elm · American elm · Ulmus 'Androssowii' · Ulmus ×arbuscula · Ulmus minor subsp. canescens · Cedar elm · Ulmus 'Densa' · Wych Elm · Ulmus glaucescens var. glaucescens · Ulmus glaucescens var. lasiocarpa · Ulmus glaucescens · Ulmus harbinensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ulmus minor by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
