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Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis
Also called Dutch Elm, Holland Elm
Guernsey elm, a narrow columnar subspecies of field elm, long grown as a street and garden tree in Britain and the Netherlands. Its key challenges are Dutch elm disease and suckering, so it is usually base-grafted on wych elm.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Sarniensis', known variously as Guernsey elm, Jersey elm, Wheatley elm, or Southampton elm, was first described by MacCulloch in 1815 from trees on Guernsey, and was planted in the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens in the 1820s. 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. 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."
Melville, believing the cultivar a hybrid between Cornish elm U.
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'.
One tree, supplied by the Späth nursery, was planted in 1897 as U. campestris sarniensis at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Canada. 'Sarniensis' was introduced to the United States, featuring in the 1904 catalogue of Frederick W.
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 'Sarniensis' by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
