Flora of North America species comparison

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Ulmus procera

English cork elm, English elm, field elm
Habit Trees, to 40 m; crowns open.
Bark

grayish brown, deeply ridged, flaking.
Branches

old-growth branchlets with corky ridges;

twigs reddish brown, villous to scabrous, old-growth branchlets with corky ridges.
Buds

ovoid;

scales dark brown, sparsely pubescent, marginally pale-ciliate.
Leaves

blade broadly lanceolate-elliptic to ovate, (3-)7-10 × (3-)4-6(-10) cm, base strongly oblique, not covering petiole, margins doubly serrate, apex acute to acuminate;

surfaces abaxially villous with woolly tufts in vein axils, pale in contrast to adaxial surface, adaxially dark green, glabrous to sparsely scabrous, margins not ciliate.
Inflorescences

dense clusters of subsessile flowers borne on lateral shoots resembling short racemes, flowers and fruits not pendulous.
Flowers

calyx green to reddish purple or tan, shallowly lobed, lobes 5-8, marginally villous;

stamens 3-5(-6);

anthers dark brown, globose;

stigmas white, puberulous, persistent in fruit, slender lobes incurved.
Seeds

thickened, not inflated.
Wood

hard.
Samaras

light brown, darker brown to red in area covering seed, orbiculate, about as long as broad, 0.9-1.8 × 0.9-1.6 cm, broadly winged, glabrous except for pubescence along margin of apex, apex shallowly notched.
2n

= 28.

Ulmus procera
Phenology Flowering early–late spring.
Habitat Persisting, sometimes naturalizing locally where species has been planted
Elevation 0-400 m (0-1300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CT; IL; MA; MO; NY; RI; ON; native to Europe [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

In the absence of carefully documented naturalized populations, the North American distribution of Ulmus procera is very poorly known. It is locally established in British Columbia, Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, and Michigan. It has been reported from Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Off-shoots from the root systems are often found close to planted trees, forming dense clones, especially in and around urban centers.

Some authors have combined Ulmus minor Miller and U. procera Salisbury. This treatment follows that of Tutin and colleagues (T. G. Tutin et al. 1964-1980, vol. 1, pp. 65-66), in which the species were regarded as separate. Reports of Ulmus minor Miller, in the strict sense, in North America are not confirmed. Hybrids of Ulmus procera and U. glabra are reported from New York (R. S. Mitchell 1988) and may be spreading. Both U. procera and U. glabra are involved in the parentage of Dutch elm, Ulmus ×hollandica Pallas.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Ulmaceae > Ulmus
Sibling taxa
U. alata, U. americana, U. crassifolia, U. glabra, U. parvifolia, U. pumila, U. rubra, U. serotina, U. thomasii
Name authority Salisbury: Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton, 391. (1796)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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