Ulmus americana 'Pendula'

The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Pendula' was originally listed by William Aiton in Hort. Kew, 1: 320, 1789, as U. americana var. pendula, cloned in England in 1752 by James Gordon.[1][2] From the 1880s the Späth nursery of Berlin supplied a cultivar at first listed as Ulmus fulva (Michx.) pendula Hort.,[3][4] which in their 1899 catalogue was queried as a possible variety of U. americana,[5] and which thereafter appeared in their early 20th-century catalogues as U. americana pendula (formerly Ulmus fulva (Michx.) pendula Hort.).[6][7][8] The Scampston Elm, Ulmus × hollandica 'Scampstoniensis', in cultivation on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th and 20th centuries, was occasionally referred to as 'American Weeping Elm' or Ulmus americana pendula.[9][10] This cultivar, however, was distinguished by Späth from his Ulmus americana pendula.

Ulmus americana 'Pendula'
SpeciesUlmus americana
Cultivar'Pendula'
OriginEngland
A pendulous form of American white elm, Lancaster, Massachusetts

'Pendula' was considered probably just a forma by Green, who stated that it was later confused with a pendulous variant of an Ulmus glabra (see 'Synonymy').[2] At least one US nursery, however, stocked a clone. From 1932 to 1934 Plumfield Nurseries of Fremont, Nebraska, marketed, alongside the pyramidal Ulmus americana 'Moline' and the non-pendulous Ulmus americana 'Vase', an 'American Weeping Elm' , "a weeping form of American elm, with long drooping branches".[11][12][13]

Description

The tree was described as vase-shaped with branches pendulous at their extremities.[2]

Cultivation
Weeping elm by Plymouth Congregational Church, Plainfield, Illinois (1941)
Morton Arboretum's Ulmus americana f. pendula (2009)

The U. americana pendula planted at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, in 1889 may have been Späth's mis-named Ulmus fulva (Mchx) pendula, later corrected in arboretum lists, since Späth supplied many of the 1880s' and 1890s' elms there.[14] Specimens from Späth were in cultivation in Europe, as Ulmus fulva (Mchx) pendula in the late 19th century, and as U. americana pendula in the 20th, to the 1930s.[15] Henry (1913) described two at Kew obtained from Späth in 1896, considering them "probably not" Ulmus americana 'Beebe's Weeping', an 1889 cultivar which had at first also been mis-called Ulmus fulva (Mchx) pendula.[16] 'Pendula' is known to have been cultivated in the UK (most recently in Ayrshire[17]) and the Netherlands; no surviving trees have been confirmed (2016).

A striking low, horizontal-spreading American elm in Morton Arboretum, Illinois (near the main road to the east side), said by the Arboretum not to be 'Beebe's', is labelled as a forma, Ulmus americana f. pendula, reportedly cloned in 1970 from a weeping American elm growing in front of Plymouth Congregational Church, Plainfield, Illinois (see 'Accessions').

Hybrid cultivars

'Pendula' was used in the Dutch elm breeding programme before World War II, but none of the progeny were of particular note and are not known to have been cultivated [18]

Synonymy
  • Ulmus americana var. glabra: Walpers, Ann. Bot. Syst. 3: 424, 1852.
  • Ulmus fulva (Mchx) pendula Hort., Späth in error, 1880s to 1899 (see above)

Accessions

North America

References
  1. Aiton, William (1789). "Ulmus". Hortus Kewensis. 1: 320.
  2. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  3. Späth, L., Catalogue 79 (1890-91; Berlin), p.114
  4. Späth, L., Catalogue 89 (1892-93; Berlin), p.116
  5. Späth, L., Catalogue 104 (1899–1900; Berlin), p.134
  6. Katalog (PDF). Vol. 108. Berlin, Germany: L. Späth Baumschulenweg. 1902–1903. pp. 132–133.
  7. Späth nursery, Catalogue 143, p. 135, 1910–11. Berlin, Germany.
  8. Späth, L., Catalogue 130 (1908-09; Berlin), p.135
  9. Winchelsea, C.C. (1910). "Weeping trees". The Gardeners' Magazine. 53: 501.
  10. Anthony waterer's catalogue. 1880. p. 20.
  11. Plumfield Nurseries, Fremont, Nebraska, Fall 1932 wholesale trade list, p13
  12. Plumfield Nurseries, Fremont, Nebraska, Fall 1933 wholesale trade list, p16
  13. Plumfield Nurseries, Fremont, Nebraska, Wholesale trade list for nurserymen, florists and dealers : February 10, 1934; p12
  14. Saunders, William; Macoun, William Tyrrell (1899). Catalogue of the trees and shrubs in the arboretum and botanic gardens at the central experimental farm (2 ed.). pp. 74–75.
  15. Späth, L., Catalogue 262 (1930-31; Berlin), p.34
  16. Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. 7. pp. 1855–1859.
  17. Recorded by Alan Mitchell for Tree Register records in 1989
  18. Went, J. C. (1954). The Dutch elm disease - Summary of 15 years' hybridisation and selection work (1937-1952). European Journal of Plant Pathology, Vol 60, 2, March 1954.
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