''Ulmus minor'' subsp. ''minor'', the smooth-leaved elm, narrow-leaved elm or East Anglian elm, is a subspecies of the

field elm ''Ulmus minor'' Mill., the field elm, is by far the most polymorphic of the European species, although its taxonomy remains a matter of contention. Its natural range is predominantly south European, extending to Asia Minor and Iran; its northern ...

native to southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

including

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The name ''Ulmus minor'' subsp. ''minor'' was used by R. H. Richens for field elms that were not

English elm The field elm (''Ulmus minor'') cultivar 'Atinia' , commonly known as the English elm, formerly common elm and horse may, Republished 1978 by EP Publishing, Wakefield. and more lately the Atinian elm was, before the spread of Dutch elm disea ...

Cornish elm The field elm cultivar ''Ulmus minor'' 'Stricta', known as Cornish elm, was commonly found in South West England (Cornwall and West Devon), Brittany, and south-west Ireland, until the arrival of Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. The origin o ...

, Lock elm or Guernsey elm. Many publications, however, continue to use plain ''

Ulmus minor ''Ulmus minor'' Mill., the field elm, is by far the most polymorphic of the European species, although its taxonomy remains a matter of contention. Its natural range is predominantly south European, extending to Asia Minor and Iran; its northern ...

'' for Richens's ''Ulmus minor'' subsp. ''minor''. Indeed Dr Max Coleman of

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

argued in his 2002 paper 'British Elms' that there was no clear distinction between species and subspecies.

Description

The smooth-leaved elm is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

that can grow to 35 m. Its Latin synonym ''carpinifolia'' alludes to the superficial similarity of the leaves to those of

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam ...

''Carpinus'' sp., while the common names contrast the smooth upper surface and narrowness of the leaves with those of the wych elm, which are rough and broad. Stace, C. A. (1997). ''New Flora of the British Isles'', 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.White, J. & More, D. (2003). ''Trees of Britain & Northern Europe''. Cassell's, London. The

apetalous Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corolla''. Petals are usually ...

perfect wind-pollinated flowers, and fruit ( samaras) are very similar to those of the species.

Pests and diseases

Although the smooth-leaved elm is generally susceptible to

Dutch elm disease Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into Americas, America ...

, it is genetically a highly variable tree and it is possible some specimens survive in the UK owing to an innately high level of resistance (see Cultivation). Research currently (2009) in hand by

Cemagref The Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), formerly known as Cemagref, was a public research institute in France focusing on land management issues, such as water resources and ag ...

at , Guémené-Penfao,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, should confirm this. However, all smooth-leaved elm varieties are believed to have been introduced into Britain from central and southern Europe during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

,Richens, R. H. (1983). ''Elm''. Cambridge University Press. and some, being beyond their natural climates and environments, may be growing slowly and thus producing smaller springwood vessels restrictive to the '' Ophiostoma'' fungus. Good performance in the field may also be owing to resistance to bark beetle feeding or breeding. Moreover, several types of this subspecies also have very pendulous twigs when mature, a factor which could also make them unattractive to foraging Scolytus beetles, which are disinclined to invert themselves.Webber, J. (2008). Dutch elm disease in Britain. ''Forest Research'', Forestry Commission, Alice Holt, Farnham, Surrey As the tree suckers readily, its genetic resources are not considered endangered.Collin, E., Bilger, I., Eriksson, G. & Turok, J. (2000). The conservation of elm genetic resources in Europe, in Dunn, C. P., (Ed.) (2000) ''The Elms: Breeding, Conservation and Disease Management''. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, USA. The subspecies has a moderate to high susceptibility to the elm leaf beetle, ''Xanthogaleruca luteola'', and a moderate susceptibility to

elm yellows Elm yellows is a plant disease of elm trees that is spread by leafhoppers or by root grafts."Elm Yellows." Elmcare.Com. 19 Mar. 2008 . Elm yellows, also known as elm phloem necrosis, is very aggressive, with no known cure. Elm yellows occurs in th ...

Cultivation

Dutch Elm Disease strikes Badingham - geograph

View across field from Bradwell Road, Tillingham - geograph

Many mature specimens still survive in England, notably in East Anglia.Miles, A. (2007) ''Hidden Trees of Britain''. Ebury Press.Gibbs, J. N., Brasier, C. M., Webber, J. F. (1994) Dutch elm disease in Britain. ''Forestry Commission Research Note No. 252.'' The

Woodland Trust The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972. The Woodland Tr ...

currently lists (2013) some 120 surviving "ancient" smooth-leaved elms in England and Wales, some of which are among the elms now being cloned, propagated and planted as part of The Conservation Foundation's 'Great British Elm Experiment' and 'Ulmus londinium' projects, a scheme to identify disease-resistant strains and return elms to city and countryside. In a more academically-based project, most of the clones of the surviving European field elms that have been tested since the 1990s for innate resistance to Dutch elm disease by national research institutes in the EU, with a view to returning field elm to cultivation in Europe, would be classified by Richens’s system as ''Ulmus minor'' subsp. ''minor''. Results from Spain (2013), for example, confirm that a very small number of surviving field elms (about 0.5% of those tested) appear to have comparatively high levels of tolerance of the disease, and it is hoped that a controlled crossing of the best of these will produce resistant ''Ulmus minor'' hybrids for cultivation. Narrow-leaved elm was occasionally planted as an ornamental urban tree.

Notable trees

The largest recorded tree in the UK grew at

Great Amwell Great Amwell is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is southeast of Ware and about north of London. History On a hill above the church there are some traces of an Iron Ag ...

in Hertfordshire, measuring 40 m in height and 228 cm

diameter at breast height Diameter at breast height, or DBH, is a standard method of expressing the diameter of the trunk or bole of a standing tree. DBH is one of the most common dendrometric measurements. Tree trunks are measured at the height of an adult's breast ...

(d.b.h.) in 1911. Another famous specimen was the great elm that towered above its two siblings at the bottom of Long Melford Green,

Long Melford Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, ...

, Suffolk, till the group succumbed to disease in 1978. The three "were survivors of a former clone of at least nine elms, one dating from 1757". The Long Melford elms were painted in 1940 by the watercolourist S. R. Badmin in his 'Long Melford Green on a Frosty Morning', now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.S. R. Badmin's 'Long Melford Green on a Frosty Morning', Victoria and Albert Museu

/ref> The largest known surviving trees are at East Coker, Somerset (30 m high, 95 cm d.b.h.), Termitts Farm near Hatfield Peverel, Essex (25 m high, 145 d.b.h.) and Melchbourne, Bedfordshire, (147 cm d.b.h.).Tree Register Of the British Isles (TROBI)
/ref>

Cultivars

*Ulmus minor 'Argenteo-Variegata', ''Ulmus minor'' 'Argenteo-Variegata' (variegated smooth-leaved elm)

Hybrids

The tree's natural range in eastern England overlaps with that of wych elm (''Ulmus glabra''), the two species hybridizing to produce elms of the Ulmus × hollandica, ''Ulmus'' × ''hollandica'' type. ''U. minor'' subsp. ''minor'' is believed to have hybridized also with Ulmus minor 'Plotii', Plot's elm to create Ulmus × viminalis, ''Ulmus'' × ''viminalis''.

Accessions

North America

*Brooklyn Botanic Garden]

New York City, New York, acc. nos. 350001, X02487 (as ''U. carpinifolia''). *Dawes Arboretum]

Newark, Ohio, Newark, Ohio. 3 trees, listed as ''U. carpinifolia'', no acc. details available. *Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Listed as ''U. carpinifolia''. No acc. details available.

Europe

*Brighton & Hove City Council, NCCPG Elm Collection. *Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Royal Botanic Garden, Wakehurst Place, as ''U. carpinifolia'' Gled., acc. nos. 1975-6201, 1977-6682, collected by Melville.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7879548 Ulmus, minor subsp. minor Flora of Great Britain Trees of Europe Flora of Iran Ulmus articles with images Elm species and varieties