Ulmus laevis var. celtidea


Ulmus laevis var. celtidea Rogow. is a putative variety of European White Elm first described by Rogowicz, who found the tree in 1856 along the river Dnjepr near Chernihiv in what is now northern Ukraine. The type specimen is held at the National Herbarium of Ukraine. The variety was first named as Ulmus pedunculata var. celtidea. Litvinov considered it a species, calling it Ulmus celtidea Litv., a view not upheld by other authorities.
Similar trees were later found near Briansk in Oryol Oblast, but featured larger leaves.

Description

The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, but only about in length, long-acuminate at the apex, and coarsely, sharply serrate, cuneate and sub-equal at the base. The samarae were also notably smaller than the species. A 1906 herbarium specimen in the Berlin Botanical Museum labelled U. celtidea Litv., from Orel province, Russia, has, however, leaves to 2 or 3 inches.

Cultivation

One specimen which grew at the Strona Arboretum, University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, died circa 2006. The tree was grown from seed collected from a tree at the Arboretum of the Forest-Technical Academy in St. Petersburg in 1961; it is not known whether this source is still alive. No cultivars or hybrid cultivars are known.

Accessions

North America

Europe

  • Royal Botanic Gardens Wakehurst Place, UK. Acc. no. 1973-21047, as Ulmus laevis var. glabra obtained from a grafted tree grown at Kew now lost; provenance notes of the latter have not survived either.

Synonyms

Ulmus celtidea: Litvinov, Schedae. Herb. Fl. Ross., vi. 167, 1908.Ulmus pedunculata var. celtidea. Rogow. 1856.Ulmus effusa Will. f. celtidea Rogow.Ulmus pedunculata var. glabra: Trautvetter,