Ulmus glabra
Ulmus alata
broad-leaf elm, Scotch elm, wych elm
wahoo, wing elm
gray, smooth, furrowed with age.
light brown to gray with shallow ridges and plates.
spreading to pendulous, glabrous, branchlets lacking corky wings;
twigs ash-gray to red-brown, villous when young.
young and old-growth branches with opposite, prominent, regular corky wings;
twigs reddish brown, pubescent to glabrous.
obtuse;
scales reddish brown, glabrous to marginally white-ciliate.
apex acute;
scales brown to rusty, slightly 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.
blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3-6.9 × 0.6-3.2 cm, base somewhat cordate to oblique, margins doubly serrate, apex acute;
surfaces abaxially with trichomes on veins, tufts of pubescence in axils of veins, adaxially glabrous to scabrous.
dense fascicles, 8-20-flowered, less than 2.5 cm, flowers and fruits not pendulous;
pedicel short, 0.4-0.8 mm, densely pubescent.
short racemes, not pendulous, less than 2.5 cm;
pedicel 2-7 mm, not fully expanded until fruiting stage.
calyx lobed to ca. 1/2 length, lobes 4-8, reddish pubescent;
stamens 5-6, purplish;
stigmas reddish, with white pubescence.
calyx deeply lobed, symmetric, lobes 5;
stamens 5;
anthers red.
thickened, not inflated.
slightly thickened, not inflated.
hard.
hard.
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.
gray-tan, often reddish tinged, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, ca. 8 mm, narrowly winged, margins ciliate, cilia white, 1-2 mm.
= 28.
= 28.
Ulmus glabra
Ulmus alata
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.)
Often planted as a shade tree in the southern United States, Ulmus alata is also cultivated outside North America.
The name Ulmus pumila was incorrectly applied to this species by Walter in 1788.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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