Ulmus 'Australis'

Ulmus
Cultivar 'Australis'
Origin Europe

The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Australis' [:'southern'], reputedly endemic to south-eastern France, Switzerland and Italy, is a little-known tree considered by various authorities to have been a variety of Ulmus minor or Ulmus × hollandica.

'Australis' is not to be confused with Loudon's U. glabra 'Australis', a variety of Wych Elm.[1]

Description

The tree is distinguished by its conspicuously and numerously veined oval leathery leaves measuring 2 inches (5.1 cm) to 3 inches (7.6 cm) in length by 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) to 1.75 inches (4.4 cm) in width and with a petiole up to .25 inches (0.64 cm) long.[2][3]

Cultivation

Augustine Henry described lines of the trees along the Cours-la-Reine in Rouen planted in 1649 by the Duc de Longueville; several of which were still alive in 1912, having attained a height of about 90 feet (27 m). Henry also mentions specimens growing in botanical gardens at Le Mans and Bordeaux, and others growing as far south as Spizza (now Sutomore) in Dalmatia (Montenegro).[3] 'Australis' is not known to survive in cultivation.

Rouen, Le Cours la Reine ca. 1900, possibly showing the 'Australis' mentioned by Elwes & Henry.[3]

Synonymy

References

  1. Loudon, John Claudius (1838). Arboretum et fruticetum Britannicum. 3. p. 1398.
  2. Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs. (1977). David & Charles, Newton Abbot, UK.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. 7. pp. 1904–1905.
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