Ulmus glabra
Ulmus americana
broad-leaf elm, Scotch elm, wych elm
American elm, orme d'amérique, white elm
gray, smooth, furrowed with age.
light brown to gray, deeply fissured or split into plates.
spreading to pendulous, glabrous, branchlets lacking corky wings;
twigs ash-gray to red-brown, villous when young.
pendulous, old-growth branches smooth, not winged;
twigs brown, pubescent to glabrous.
obtuse;
scales reddish brown, glabrous to marginally white-ciliate.
brown, apex acute, glabrous;
scales reddish brown, 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 oval to oblong-obovate, 7-14 × 3-7 cm, base oblique, margins doubly serrate, apex acute to acuminate;
surfaces abaxially glabrous to slightly pubescent, tufts 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.
fascicles, less than 2.5 cm, flowers and fruits drooping on elongate pedicels;
pedicel 1-2 cm.
calyx lobed to ca. 1/2 length, lobes 4-8, reddish pubescent;
stamens 5-6, purplish;
stigmas reddish, with white pubescence.
calyx shallowly lobed, slightly asymmetric, lobes 7-9, margins ciliate;
stamens 7-9;
anthers red;
stigmas white-ciliate, deeply divided.
thickened, not inflated.
thickened, not inflated.
hard.
soft.
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.
yellow-cream when mature, sometimes tinged with reddish purple (s range of species), ovate, ca. 1 cm, narrowly winged, margins ciliate, cilia yellow to white, to 1 mm.
= 28.
= 56.
Ulmus glabra
Ulmus americana
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.)
Ulmus americana is reported as widely escaped in Idaho, which is not part of the natural range of this taxon. It is occasionally cultivated outside its native distribution, and it has escaped sporadically from cultivation. It is also reported as naturalized in Arizona, but I have seen no specimens.
Ulmus americana is the state tree for Massachusetts and for North Dakota.
The American elm is susceptible to numerous diseases, including Dutch elm disease. Ulmus americana has been a street and shade tree of choice because of its fast growth and pleasant shape and size. The species still exists in substantial numbers both as shade trees and in nature.
Numerous infraspecific taxa have been recognized in Ulmus americana (A. J. Rehder 1949; P. S. Green 1964).
Native American tribes frequently used parts of Ulmus americana for a variety of medicinal purposes, including treatment of coughs and colds, sore eyes, dysentary, diarrhea, broken bones, gonorrhea, and pulmonary hemorrhage, as a gynecological aid, as a bath for appendicitis, and as a wash for gunwounds (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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