English Elm

Dutch Elm Disease is spread by Elm Bark Beetles.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Ulmus procera
Family: 
Elms
Family Latin name: 
ULMACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

The March flowers of this native tree, showing as dark pink and red tassels, appear before the leaves.  The twisted grain of elm wood means high resistance to splitting, making it ideal for wooden items subject to rough usage, such as chair seats, table tops, staircase treads, floorboards, coffins, wagon wheel hubs and naves, beetle heads, chocks and wedges, garden barrows, partitions in stables, and coffins.  It stands immersion in water particularly well, and has been used for pilings and groynes on the coast, water pipes, village pumps, keels of ships, water wheel slats, bobbins on trawl nets, ships' capstan blocks, and 'dead-eyes' and pulley-blocks in ships' rigging.

Dutch Elm Disease is spread by Elm Bark Beetles. The first sign of infection is usually an upper branch of the tree with leaves starting to wither and yellow in summer, months before the normal autumnal leaf shedding. Many - if not all - of the Elms in the Cemetery are afflicted with this disease and will eventually perish.

A pair of disease-resistant Elms were planted in March 2025. (See the separate entry for this hybrid cultivar.)

An infusion of the dried inner bark is a demulcent, astringent, diuretic and antiscorbutic, particularly recommended for cutaneous conditions like ringworm.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
Dutch Elm Disease is spread by Elm Bark Beetles.
Dutch Elm Disease is spread by Elm Bark Beetles.
Dutch Elm Disease is spread by Elm Bark Beetles.
In autumn 2022, the Friends of Heene were given two disease-resistant Elms by the Council.
Many - if not all - of the Elms in the Cemetery are afflicted with Dutch Elm Disease and will eventually perish, but will look healthy until this happens.
Many - if not all - of the Elms in the Cemetery are afflicted with Dutch Elm Disease and will eventually perish, but will look healthy until this happens.

Details

Species family information

The asymmetric alternate leaves of the elms are characteristic. Ascomycota sac fungi are responsible for causing Dutch Elm Disease, spread by Elm Bark Beetles. The first sign of infection is usually an upper branch of the tree with leaves starting to wither and yellow in summer, months before the normal autumnal leaf shedding. This progressively spreads to the rest of the tree, with further dieback of branches. Eventually, the roots die, starved of nutrients from the leaves. Often, not all the roots die: the roots of some species, notably the English elm, can repeatedly put up suckers, which flourish for up to 15 years, after which they, too, succumb.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.