The Elm Family
(Ulmaceae)
Family Description
Elm trees have suffered from a terrible fungal infection, known as Dutch Elm Disease (named after the Dutch who first discovered the disease). It is spread from tree to tree by the bark-beetle.
Elm has been in Britain for thousands of years and is one of our best-loved trees.
Elm can grow to 30 metres high. One Elm was recorded at 40 meters and was about 300 years old.
Elm wood remains good even underwater and this quality has meant that too many were cut down in the past to make doors, wheels, pumps and other items.
For thousands of years, people collected Elm leaves to feed to their cattle. It is believed that an over-harvesting of elm leaves caused a decline in Elm trees about 5000 years ago, in the new stone age (neolithic period). In Britain, Elm leaves were still fed to cattle, up until the 10th century, and it is still used for this purpose in other countries.
English Elm
Ulmus procera
English Elm is known as "the tall elm" and is the shape of a tall, thick cloud.
The leaves of the elm fall off every winter. All trees that lose their leaves with the changing seasons are called "deciduous" (sounds like "dess-id-you-us").
Elm likes fertile soil and warmth.
Elm dislikes shade, and usually grows in fairly open spaces.
Special features
The leaves are small and rather broad, with pointed edges like a row of sharp teeth.They are always lopsided, which means that they are not symmetrical. They are called "simple", which means that they are made of one section.
The dark red flowers do not have petals and are clustered together in bunches.
New shoots, which grow from the root, spread underneath the soil and then pop up quite a distance from the parent tree, to grow into new Elm trees.
Reproduction
Many people think that these seeds do not grow and that instead, all new plants spring from the roots.
Elms usually reproduce by "vegetative" processes - that is by new shoots growing straight out of the root or trunk. This means that a single plant can form several hedges and some are believed to be the largest single organisms in Britain.
The Elm can also reproduce sexually (that is to say by mixing male and female cells) by the production of seeds. The small fruit, which forms quickly after the flowers, is flat and grows in bunches.
The fruits turn from green to white. Each fruit produces just one seed each. The seeds are dry and have little wings, which help them to float along in the breeze to new ground.
Seasonal
Elm flowers appear in late February or early March and the flowers appear before the leaves.
Geographical
The English Elm can only be found in the south of England and parts of south-east France. Other types of Elm can only be found in parts of mid-England.
Elm has always been thought of as an unlucky tree, perhaps because it has often been used to make coffins.
Folk believed that it dropped branches deliberately onto people beneath. It certainly has a reputation for losing branches in windy weather.
