Ulmus Minor 'Viminalis'

The field elm cultivar ''Ulmus minor'' 'Viminalis' (:'willow-like'), occasionally referred to as the twiggy field elm, was raised by Masters in 1817, and listed in 1831 as ''U. campestris viminalis'', without description. Loudon added a general description in 1838, and the Cambridge University Herbarium acquired a leaf specimen of the tree in 1866. Moss, writing in 1912, said that the ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'' from Cambridge University Herbarium was the only elm he thought agreed with the original Plot's elm (not ''U. minor'' 'Plotii') as illustrated by Dr. Plot in 1677 from specimens growing in an avenue and coppice at Hanwell near Banbury. Elwes and Henry (1913) also considered Loudon's ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'' to be Dr Plot's elm. Its 19th-century name, ''U. campestris'' var. ''viminalis'', led the cultivar to be classified for a time as a variety of English Elm. On the Continent, 'Viminalis' was listed as ''Ulmus antarctica'' Hort., the 'zierliche Ulme' 'dainty elm'of Kirchner's ''Arboretum Muscaviense'' (1864).

Melville considered 'Viminalis' one form, the 'type' cultivar,
of the natural, variable hybrid, ''U. minor'' × ''U. minor'' 'Plotii', which occurs in England where the two trees overlap, and which he called, believing ''U. plotii'' Druce a species, ''U.'' × ''viminalis''. He questioned, however, Henry's claim that 'Viminalis' was Dr Plot's elm. Writing in 1940 and referring to a pencil rubbing in ''Herb. Druce'', vol. 113 of the Sloane Collection, he wrote "I can see no reason to doubt that this is Plot's plant," but "it is ot''U.'' × ''viminalis'' Lodd". Boom (1959) and Bean (1988)
listed 'Viminalis' as a cultivar and the 'type' clone of Melville's ''U.'' × ''viminalis''.

Description

Wood (1851) described 'Viminalis' as "a neat-growing compact tree, with small foliage", Henry (1913) as a "tree with ascending branches, pendulous branchlets, and sparse foliage", and Bean (1981) as a "narrow-headed, rather slender tree". 'Viminalis' is slow-growing; it can ultimately reach 20 m in height.Browne, D. J. (1846). ''The Trees of America''. Harper & Brothers, New York. Leaves vary from obovate-elliptic to narrowly elliptic; they are deeply serrated, < 5.0 cm long, tapering to a nearly symmetrical base and long-acuminate at the tip, with prominent white axil tufts on the undersides. In his description of ''Ulmus antarctica'' Hort. (1864), Kirchner added that the leaves are more or less downward-curving, with longish petioles, and that the leaf-margins have numerous deep, double, hook-shaped teeth, "so that the leaves appear almost slit".

Loudon's sketch (below) suggests that a narrow leaf was fairly uniform on his tree. The Cambridge University Herbarium specimen of Loudon's ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'' shows leaves resembling both Henry's 'Viminalis' drawing and Schneider's 'Antarctica' drawing, confirming the synonymy. 'Viminalis' has been likened to '' Zelkova × verschaffeltii''.''Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs''. (1977). David & Charles, Newton Abbot, UK. Bean wrote in 1936, "I have never seen it bearing fruit, although it flowers." The old specimen in Lydiard Street, Ballarat, Victoria, however (see 'Notable trees'), produces abundant fruit, the seed being close to the marginal notch in somewhat broad samarae.

File:Ulmus campestris viminalis. The twiggy field, or English, Elm. p.233.jpg, Loudon's ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'', with leaf sketch
File:Photograph of Ulmus campestris viminalis specimen.jpg, ''U. campestris viminalis'' leaves, Cambridge University Herbarium, labelled 'Herb. J. Lindley, Ph.D., Purchased in 1866'
File:Ulmus campestris variety viminalis Loudon.jpg, 1912 ''Gardeners' Chronicle'' illustration of the same, identifying specimen as Loudon's 'Viminalis'
File:Plot's elm (not U. minor 'Plotii').jpg, Dr Plot's elm for comparison (1677).
File:Leaf of U. 'Viminalis' from Elwes & Henry.jpg, Leaf-drawing of Elwes & Henry's 'type' tree (1913)
File:Ulmus x viminalis (1123 Lydiard Street) (3).jpg, Foliage of 'Viminalis' saplings cloned from the tree in Lydiard St, Ballarat, Victoria
File:Ulmus x viminalis (1123 Lydiard Street) (5).jpg, Same
File:Ulmus x viminalis 'Pulverulenta'. Batsford Arboretum, Gloucestershire (9).jpg, Reverted branchlet of variegated 'Viminalis', Batsford Arboretum

Pests and diseases

'Viminalis' is very susceptible to Dutch elm disease, as are the natural hybrids between field elm and plot elm (Melville's ''U.'' × ''viminalis''), of which the type cultivar is usually considered an example.

Cultivation

'Viminalis' was valued for its ornamental qualities, Wood (1851) considering it "well adapted for the back part of shrubberies". Bean (1936) called it "a charming small tree for gardens, very elegant and not growing fast",Bean, W. J. (1936) ''Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain'', 7th edition, Murray, London, vol. 2, p.621 while the catalogue of Hillier & Sons, Winchester, Hampshire, (1958) described it as "an extremely graceful, slender tree of slow growth, easily distinguished from all other elms by its narrow, fimbriated leaves". Kirchner noted that the tree is not sensitive to frost. Specimens were present in many of the major UK collections, including Cambridge University Botanic Garden (see 'Notable trees' below), Kew Gardens (35 ft., 1913), Westonbirt Arboretum (49 ft., 1927), Royal Victoria Park, Bath (1857, 1905),Hanham, F. (1857)
''A Manual for the Park''
(Royal Victoria Park, Bath). Longman, London. and Ryston Hall arboretum, Norfolk (planted as ''U. antarctica'', 1914). 'Viminalis' remained in the catalogues of the Hillier nursery, Winchester, till the 1960s.

Introduced to North America, ''Ulmus viminalis'', 'slender-twigged elm', was marketed by Hovey's nursery of Boston, Massachusetts, from the 1850s, and by the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as Ellwanger and Barry) of Rochester, New York, from c.1860. In continental Europe, North America and Australasia a few specimens survive in arboreta and avenues. One tree in height, determined as ''U.'' × ''viminalis'' Loud. by Melville, stood by the lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, in 1953.Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (France). Collection: Vascular plants (P). Specime
P06882554
/ref> It may have been the ''Ulmus viminalis'' specimen present in the Gardens in 1877. In the UK two mature trees survive in the Brighton and Hove area.In Longhill School, Rottingdean (2024), and in Withdean Park. The tree remains in cultivation in Australia.

File:BH00071 Ulmus minor 'Viminalis'. The Vale, Rottingdean, Brighton. 01.jpg, Spray of leaves from Rottingdean tree
File:BH00071 Ulmus minor 'Viminalis'. The Vale, Rottingdean, Brighton. 03.jpg, Leaf from Rottingdean tree
File:BH00071 Ulmus minor 'Viminalis'. The Vale, Rottingdean, Brighton. 02.jpg, Underside of same
File:BH00070 Ulmus. Withdean Park, Brighton (2).jpg, Withdean Park 'Viminalis', Brighton (2015)
File:BH00070 Ulmus. Withdean Park, Brighton (1).jpg, Dried leaves of Withdean Park 'Viminalis', Brighton

Notable trees

Elwes and Henry list notable specimens "of this variety" (the type tree described and illustrated) in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden (70 ft) and in Gisselfeld Park, Denmark (60 ft). Three trees labelled ''U.'' 'Viminalis', pollarded in 1984, stand in Benalla Botanic Gardens, Australia. A specimen of the same cultivar, apparently unpollarded, stands in Lydiard Street, Ballarat, Victoria.

File:Ulmus x viminalis.jpg, Two pollarded ''U.'' 'Viminalis', Benalla Botanic Gardens, Australia (2006)
File:Ulmus x viminalis leaves.jpg, Leaves of Benalla ''U.'' 'Viminalis'

Cultivars

Cultivars include both sports of the type tree and elms similar enough to have been conjectured as related to it:
* Viminalis Aurea, Viminalis Gracilis, Viminalis Incisa, Viminalis Marginata, Viminalis Pendula, Viminalis Pulverulenta, Viminalis Stricta.

Synonymy

*''Ulmus antarctica'' Hort..
*''Ulmus campestris antarctica''.
*''Ulmus campestris'' 'Betulinoides'.
*''Ulmus campestris'' var. ''betulaefolia''.
*''U. campestris'' var. ''laciniata''.
*''U. campestris'' var. ''microphylla pendula'' Hort. as in synonymy.
*''Ulmus campestris'' var. ''nuda'' subvar. ''incisa'' Hort.Vilv.. Considered "possibly ''U. viminalis''" by Green (1964).
*''Ulmus campestris'' var. ''stricta''.
*''Ulmus campestris'' var. ''virginalis'' in synonymy.
*? ''Ulmus campestris viminalis stricta''.
*''Ulmus gracilis'' Hort..
*''Ulmus'' 'Masters's Twiggy'.
*''Ulmus montana viminalis marmorata'' Hort..
*''Ulmus scabra viminalis gracilis'' Hort..
*''Ulmus scabra viminalis pulverulenta'' Hort..
*''Ulmus suberosa betuloides'' Hort..
*''Ulmus viminalis'' Lodd.
*''Ulmus viminalis pendula''.

Accessions

North America

*Arnold Arboretum, US. Acc. no. 499–53

Europe

*Brighton & Hove City Council, UK. NCCPG Elm collection. UK champion: Upper Larkrise Wood, 23 m high, 50 cm d.b.h., last surveyed in 1995.Johnson, Owen (ed.) (2003). ''Champion Trees of Britain & Ireland''. Whittet Press, .
*Cambridge Botanic Gardenbr>
University of Cambridge, UK. No details available.

Australasia

*Benalla Botanic Gardens, Australia. Three specimens; listed on the Significant Tree Register of the National Trust.

Pseudo-'Viminalis' and 'Viminalis'-like elms

Not all clones named 'Viminalis' match the named cultivars above. Three specimens supplied by the Späth nursery to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1902 as ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'' were determined by Melville in 1958 as ''U. viminalis'' Lodd but "not the usual nothomorph".Melville's 1958 annotations to the RBGE cultivated herbarium accessions book, tree C2706 One stood in the Garden itself till the late 20th century; the other two may survive in Edinburgh, as it was the practice of the Garden to distribute trees about the city. An old cultivar with leaves that appear to match herbarium specimens of Späth's ''U. campestris viminalis'' stands (2018) in the middle of North Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh (see gallery); a second, possibly the same clone and age, in the grounds of Holyrood Palace (both trees lost their crowns in a 2016 gale and are regenerating). The ''Ulmus campestris viminalis'' supplied by Späth and planted in 1897 at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Canada, is likely to have been this clone (not to be confused with Späth's ''U.'' × ''hollandica'' 'Viminalis').

File:Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. (1902). Accessions book pages 45,47.jpg, ''U. campestris viminalis'' from Späth, in the RBGE Accessions Book
File:Edin-Meadows 07A.jpg, Putative ''U. campestris viminalis'' (Späth), The Meadows, Edinburgh (1989)
File:AZ0122 Unknown Ulmus, North Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Leaves.jpg, Leaves of putative ''U. campestris viminalis'' (Späth), The Meadows, Edinburgh (2017)
File:AZ0122 Unknown Ulmus, North Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Samarae.jpg, Samarae of Edinburgh tree
File:AZ0122 Unknown Ulmus, North Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Bole.jpg, Bark of Edinburgh tree
File:BH00066 Ulmus. Wilbury Road, Hove. (2).jpg, A 'Viminalis'-like elm in Hove
File:BH00066 Ulmus. Wilbury Road, Hove. (1).jpg, Pressed leaves of Hove tree
File:BH00066 Ulmus. Wilbury Road, Hove. (3).jpg, Bark of Hove tree

A number of old non-ornamental trees believed to belong to Melville's ''U.'' × ''viminalis'' group survive (2015) in a wood in Mepal, Cambridgeshire.Wilkinson, Gerald, ''After the Elm'' (London 1978)

File:Ulmus x viminalis, Mepal Cambridgeshire (1).jpg, Non-ornamental ''U.'' × ''viminalis'', Mepal, Cambridgeshire
File:Leaf of Ulmus x viminalis, Mepal Cambridgeshire.jpg, Leaves of non-ornamental ''U.'' × ''viminalis'', Mepal, Cambridgeshire
File:Bark of Ulmus x viminalis, Mepal Cambridgeshire.jpg, Bark of non-ornamental ''U.'' × ''viminalis'', Mepal, Cambridgeshire

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulmus minor 'Viminalis'
Field elm cultivar
Ulmus
Ulmus Edinburgh Spath 1902