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cedar elm

broad-leaf elm, Scotch elm, wych elm

Habit Trees, 24-27 m; crowns rounded to narrow. Trees, to 40 m; trunks often multiple; crowns spreading, broadly rounded or ovate.
Bark

light brown with shallow ridges and large plates.

gray, smooth, furrowed with age.

Branches

often with opposite corky wings;

twigs reddish brown, pubescent.

spreading to pendulous, glabrous, branchlets lacking corky wings;

twigs ash-gray to red-brown, villous when young.

Buds

brown, apex acute, pubescent;

scales dark brown, shiny, glabrous.

obtuse;

scales reddish brown, glabrous to marginally white-ciliate.

Leaves

blade ovate to elliptic, 2.5-5 × 1.3-2 cm, base oblique or rounded to cuneate, margins crenate to doubly serrate, apex obtuse;

surfaces abaxially softly pubescent, adaxially harshly pubescent.

blade elliptic to obovate, (4-)7-14(-16) × (3-)4.5-8(-10) cm, base strongly oblique with lowermost lobe strongly overlapping, covering petiole, margins doubly serrate, apex long-acuminate to cuspidate, sometimes with 3 acuminate lobes at broad apex;

surfaces abaxially pale green, villous with woolly tufts in vein axils, adaxially dark green, strigose to scabrous, margins not ciliate.

Inflorescences

fascicles, 2-5-flowered, 0.5 cm;

pedicel 0.75-1 cm.

dense fascicles, 8-20-flowered, less than 2.5 cm, flowers and fruits not pendulous;

pedicel short, 0.4-0.8 mm, densely pubescent.

Flowers

calyx deeply lobed, more than 1/2 its length, lobes 6-9, hairy;

stamens 5-6, anthers reddish purple;

stigmas white, pubescent, exserted and spreading.

calyx lobed to ca. 1/2 length, lobes 4-8, reddish pubescent;

stamens 5-6, purplish;

stigmas reddish, with white pubescence.

Seeds

somewhat thickened, not inflated.

thickened, not inflated.

Wood

hard.

hard.

Samaras

green to tan, elliptic to oval, ca. 0.75-1 cm, pubescent, margins ciliate, cilia ca. 0.5 mm.

light greenish brown, elliptic to obovate with blunt or rounded tip, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.8 mm, broadly winged, pubescent only along central vein of wing, apical cleft minute, obscured by persistent, curved styles.

2n

= 28.

= 28.

Ulmus crassifolia

Ulmus glabra

Phenology Flowering late summer–early fall. Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Stream banks, low woods, low hillsides, roadsides, waste places, sometimes shade trees Along margins of woodlands and disturbed sites
Elevation 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) 0-300 m (0-1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; FL; LA; MS; OK; TN; TX; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; MA; ME; NY; RI; VT; native to Europe and Asia [Introduced in North America]
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Discussion

Except for the Suwanee River valley in Florida, Ulmus crassifolia has not been found east of Webster County, Mississippi. It hybridizes with U. serotina.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

In the absence of carefully documented naturalized populations, the North American distribution of Ulmus glabra is very poorly known. The species is established locally in British Columbia and California, and probably elsewhere. It has been reported from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Ulmus glabra is similar to U. rubra in leaf morphology but may be readily distinguished by its smooth bark and glabrous samaras. Some of the weeping elms found in cultivation are varieties of U. glabra. The common name wych is derived from Gallic and means "drooping."

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Ulmaceae > Ulmus Ulmaceae > Ulmus
Sibling taxa
U. alata, U. americana, U. glabra, U. parvifolia, U. procera, U. pumila, U. rubra, U. serotina, U. thomasii
U. alata, U. americana, U. crassifolia, U. parvifolia, U. procera, U. pumila, U. rubra, U. serotina, U. thomasii
Synonyms U. montana, U. scabra
Name authority Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n.s. 5: 169. (1837) Hudson: Fl. Angl., 95. (1762)
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