Just beautiful photographs

The Elm genus or Ulmus

Finding out what Elm species you are dealing with.

Species in the Netherlands are European White Elm (Ulmus laevis) and Smooth-leaved elm or English elm (Ulmus minor) and Scots Elm (Ulmus glabra). Hybrids between Scots and Smooth-leaved elms are common (U x Hollandica or Dutch elm or Ulmus minor X U glabra ), especially next to avenues (1).
The nothern hemisphere harbors 40 species. The main American species are U americana and the red elm U rubrus (1). A paper on the species and their whereabouts can be found here.

An elm is easily recognized by its leaf that has a basis that is not equal. On one side the leaf grows further down the petiole, see the pics on the bottom of this page.

It can be difficult to discern what Elm you are dealing with. Many of the elms photographed on this site have hybrid characteristics of more species. I conclude them to be Hollandica.

If there are flowers you can identify the European White Elm well:

European White Elm differs from the English and Scots elms because:
- fruit and flowers have a long stem (6-25 mm) where the others have a very short stem.

The leaf is also supposed to be different:
The European White Elm has often all veins not split up into smaller veins, where the others have their leaf-veins split up near the edges of the leaf. The European White Elm has a very unequal basis, with strongly curled leaf-teeth with a double cerrulation (but so does the Scots elm).
See this pic here .

I do think recognizing the European White Elm without flowers or fruit is not easily possible. Any hints as to how this can be done are welcome.

Scots elm: petiole 2-5 mm (shorter than the English elm. Longest leaf-basis with small lobe. Young leafs often with three peaks. Leaf roughly haired. Upto 40 meters tall.
Leafs with more than 12 veins. No hairs on the backside of the leaf.
My experience says the leafs have more than 12 veins, youngh leafs often have three points in the fornt. No white hair on the back of the leafs.

English elm or smooth-leaved elm. Petiole 5-15 mm long, no lobe on the petiole (3). Upto 30 meters tall.
The English elm is supposed to be easily recognizable because of its thick crown of branches that begin low on the trunk. (1)
This species sometimes has corck-edges on the twigs. Leafs have no more then 12 veins and not three "spikes" on the leaf. Leafs have white hair on the back of the leafs where the veins meet.

Dutch elm or Ulmus minor X U glabra. Characteristics in between English and Scots elm. When a leaf has a lobe and a petiole of 1 cm it should be this species. A cultivar of this tree is the Golden Elm or Ulmus hollandica 'Wredei'. That tree has yellowish leafs that are curly: often a pillar-like tree.

Here a link of a site with leaf pics of all three. Personally I do not trust such pics because I do not know how the trees were identified.

Here a pic of the European white elm leafs.

All species photographed.

I have not found clear individuals to shootof the European white elm or Ulmus laevis


Scots elm
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Smooth-leaved elm or English elm
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Dutch elm or Ulmus minor X U glabra

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Golden Elm or Ulmus hollandica 'Wredei'

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Ulmus spec.

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Leafs

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Winter photo's of bark and buds, if available.

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Volgend individu / next individual
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Volgend individu / next individual
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Volgend individu / next individual
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