The elm
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
''Ulmus'' 'Australis'
southern reputedly endemic to south-eastern France, Switzerland and Italy, is a little-known tree first described by
Augustine Henry
Augustine Henry (2 July 1857 – 23 March 1930) was a British-born Irish plantsman and sinologist. He is best known for sending over 15,000 dry specimens and seeds and 500 plant samples to Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom. By 1930, he was a rec ...
in 1913,
[ and considered by various authorities to have been a variety of '' Ulmus minor'' or '']Ulmus × hollandica
''Ulmus'' × ''hollandica'' Mill. , often known simply as Dutch elm, is a natural hybrid between Wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'' and field elm ''Ulmus minor'' which commonly occurs across Europe wherever the ranges of the parent species overlap. In Eng ...
''.
'Australis' is not to be confused with Loudon's ''U. glabra'' Huds. 'Australis', a variety of Wych Elm.
Description
The tree is distinguished by its conspicuously and numerously veined oval leathery leaves measuring to in length by to in width and with a petiole up to long.[''Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs''. (1977). David & Charles, Newton Abbot, UK.][Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; herbarium specimen K000852647 (flowers): sheet labelled ''U. campestris'' var. ''australis'' Henry from La Mortola, Italy (1913)](_blank)
/ref>[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; herbarium specimen K000852648 (leaves): sheet labelled ''U. campestris'' var. ''australis'' Henry from La Mortola, Italy (1913)](_blank)
/ref> Henry's 1912 herbarium specimen from La Mortola
Mortola Inferiore, often known as La Mortola, is a frazione of the comune of Ventimiglia, in the province of Imperia, in Liguria, Italy. It lies on the road from Ventimiglia to the French border. It is home to the Giardini Botanici Hanbury, o ...
, however, has a less cuspidate, field-elm type leaf.
Cultivation
Henry described as var. ''australis'' the oldest in the lines of elms along the Cours-la-Reine
The Cours-la-Reine, also spelled Cours la Reine (without hyphens), is a public park and garden promenade located along the River Seine, between the Place de la Concorde and the Place du Canada, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It is one of t ...
in Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
, planted in 1649 by the Duc de Longueville
Duke of Longueville ('' Longueville-sur-Scie'') was a title of French nobility, though not a peerage of France.
History
The title was created in 1505 by King Louis XII of France for his first cousin once removed, François d'Orléans, Count of ...
, several of which were still alive in 1912, having attained a height of about . He also mentioned specimens growing in botanical gardens at Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
and Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
. "Similar" elms growing as far south as Spizza (now Sutomore
Sutomore ( cnr, Сутоморе, ) is a small coastal town in Bar Municipality, Montenegro. A 2011 census put the population at 2,004.
History
Sutomore was called ''Spizza'' in Venetian, when it was under the Republic of Venice from 1420 to 17 ...
) in Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
(Montenegro) he labelled var. ''dalmatica'' Baldacci,[ a name, however, once used at ]Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
for ''U. minor'' subsp. ''canescens''.[
File:Paris a la mer embarcadère Rouen 5.jpg, Same, in their heyday, 1840s
File:Pissarro - the-cours-la-reine-at-rouen-morning-sunlight-1898.jpg, Same, by ]Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
, 1898
An ''Ulmus × hollandica'' 'Australis' was propagated and marketed in the UK by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire from 1970 to 1977 when production ceased; however none were ever sold.[Hillier & Sons (1973). ''Manual of Trees & Shrubs'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot, UK, 3rd edition, p.400. Hillier, Ampfield, UK.][Hillier & Sons ''Sales inventory 1962 to 1977'' (unpublished).] Hilliers considered their hybrid 'Australis' synonymous with Henry's ''U. minor'' var. ''italica'', but Henry distinguished between the two, his var. ''italica'' having twice as many vein-pairs as his var. ''australis''.
Synonymy
*''Ulmus campestris (: procera'' Salisb.) var. ''australis''.[
*''Ulmus × hollandica'' 'Australis': ''Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs'', ed. 4, p. 400, 1977, name in synonymy.
*''Ulmus minor'' 'Italica': ''Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs'', ed. 4, p. 400, 1977, name in synonymy.
]
References
{{Elm species, varieties, hybrids, hybrid cultivars and species cultivars , state=collapsed
Elm cultivars
Ulmus