The so-called

American Elm ''Ulmus americana'', generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America, naturally occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to F ...

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 americana'' 'Variegata' was a Belgian clone mentioned by

Wesmael Wesmael is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alfred Wesmael (1832–1905), Belgian botanist * Elisabeth Wesmael (1861–1953), Belgian graphic artist *Constantin Wesmael Constantin Wesmael (4 October 1798, in Brussels – ...

in ''Bulletin de la Fédération des sociétés d'horticulture de Belgique'', 1862, as ''Ulmus americana'' var. ''variegata'' Hort.Wesmael, Alfred, ''Bulletin de la Fédération des sociétés d'horticulture de Belgique'' 1862: (Ghent, 1863), p.387
/ref> It was marketed by the Baudriller nursery of

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

as ''U. americana foliis variegatis''. Wesmael's herbarium specimens, however, held in the Botanic Garden, Meise, both of his ''Ulmus americana'' and of his ''Ulmus americana'' var. ''variegata'', do not appear to show American white elm leaves.botanicalcollections.be, specimen BR0000010840399
/ref> It is known that nurseries in Europe and America marketed the golden wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'' 'Lutescens' as ''Ulmus americana aurea'', and it is likely that Wesmael's ''Ulmus americana variegata'' was similarly misnamed, and perhaps derived from a reverting branch of ''aurea'', whose leaves it resembled. The ''Ulmus americana variegata'', "American variegated elm", marketed by the Klehm nursery of Arlington Heights, Illinois, in the early 20th century, may, however, have been variegated American white elm, as the nursery was familiar with the native species.''Klehm's Nurseries'', Arlington Heights, Illinois, c.1916, p.24
/ref>''Klehm's Nurseries, Season of 1910'', Arlington Heights, Illinois, 1910, p.12
/ref> A 2018

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...

study of the surviving elms of the National Mall, Washington D.C., listed some 28 specimens of a "distinctive striped cultivar, possibly ''U. americana'' ", but this referred to vertical fissuring in young bark, not to variegated leaves.Bassuk, Denig, Harada, Neal: 'The state of the elms on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: tree & soil conditions' (2018); hort.cornell.edu
/ref>

Description

Wesmael's herbarium specimen shows a young ‘Lutescens’-type leaf with mixed variegation and green. Klehm's ''Ulmus americana variegata'' had small leaves sprinkled over with white spots, the variation being described as constant.

Cultivation

No specimens are known to survive.

References

{{Elm species, varieties, hybrids, hybrid cultivars and species cultivars , state=collapsed American elm cultivar Ulmus articles missing images Ulmus Missing elm cultivars