The American Elm

Ulmus americana

• Note: the Beautiful Vase (Y) Shape of the tree

Tree Range in U.S. & Canada• Its native range in

the East extends from New England to Florida and westward to the foot of the Rocky Mountains

• Today it also grows, far from its natural range and free of disease, on western sites including throughout much of California.

Double Serrated Leaves

• Sawtooth-edged leaves

• Known for their lustrous green summer color and attractive fall yellow-gold.

Elm Tree Bark

• Ridges in Bark

• “Diamond-shaped Furrows”

• Grayish color in older Trees

American Elm Fruit

• Samaras

• Winged fruit

• One of first trees to flower – in March

Popular Street Tree• A large tree widely known

for its vase-like shape and rounded, multi-branched crown atop a thick, powerful trunk.

• It usually grows from 60 to 80 feet tall with a crown two-thirds as great.

• Before the onset of Dutch elm disease, American elm was one of the most common street and shade trees across much of the United States

Use as Lumber• Durability: Rated as moderately durable to non-

durable in regard to heartwood decay

• Workability: Can be a challenge to work because of interlocked grain, especially on quartersawn surfaces. Planing can cause tearout and/or fuzzy surfaces. Glues, stains, and finishes well.

• Common Uses: boxes, baskets, furniture, hockey sticks, veneer, wood pulp, and papermaking.

Dutch Elm Disease• Dutch elm disease arrived, probably on wood

imported from China, in 1930. • It spread from Ohio, where it was first reported,

to the rest of the nation over 50 years.

• The disease, spread by beetles, killed an estimated 100 million elm trees.

• The fungus, Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, is called Dutch elm disease because it was identified by Dutch researchers.

DED Affected Trees

DED Transmission Cycle

Smaller European Elm Bark Beetle Scolytus multistriatus

• Carries Fungi on its back

• American Elm most susceptible of the Elms

Native Elm Bark BeetleHylurgopinus rufipes

• The first sign of attack is the accumulation of boring dust around the base of the tree.

• Feeds on healthy elms before seeking a dying tree for gallery construction and brood production

DED-Tolerant Elms• It has been estimated that only approximately 1

in 100,000 American Elm trees is DED-tolerant, most known survivors simply having escaped exposure to the disease

• In Central Park and Tompkins Square Park in New York City, stands of several large elms originally planted by Frederick Law Olmsted survive because of their isolation from neighboring areas in New York where there had been heavy mortality.

DED vs. Chestnut Blight • The tree grows quickly and begins bearing seeds

at a young age, and the elm's seeds are largely wind-dispersed.

• It grows well along roads or railroad tracks, and in abandoned lots and other disturbed areas, where it is highly tolerant of most stress factors.

• Elms have been able to survive and to reproduce in areas where the disease had eliminated old trees, although most of these young elms eventually succumb to the disease at a relatively young age.

Protecting Elm Trees

• Fungicidal injections can be administered by a qualified arborist to valuable American elms, to prevent the trees' becoming infected.

• Effective as a preventive measure for up to three years when performed before any symptoms have appeared, but they may be ineffective as a treatment once the disease is able to be seen.

Prevention of Dutch Elm Disease in the Bronx

• Since 2005, 173 elm trees have been lost to Dutch Elm Disease (DED), a fungus spore carried on the back of Elm Bark Beetles.

• One third of Bank of Americas grant was allocated to prevent the loss of additional elm trees from this highly contagious disease, augmenting Mayor Bloombergs Dutch Elm Disease Program.

• The Parks Department now prunes, injects, and removes trees affected by DED.

William Penn & The Treat Elm - PA

• Native Americans met William Penn under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, the site of present day Penn Treaty Park, just north of Penn’s Landing.

Washington’s Square Hangman’s Tree

• +330 yrs. English Elm. Oldest tree in Manhattan

• Cover of the Park’s “Great NYC Trees”

• Legend: traitors were hanged at this location during the American Revolutionary War.

Washington Heights Dinosaur• Another candidate

for oldest tree in Manhattan One is in Washington Heights, a 110-foot elm at 163rd Street and St. Nicholas.

• Known as the Dinosaur, it reportedly shaded George Washington as he surveyed his shifting fortunes during the Battle of Washington Heights.

The Liberty Tree - Massachusetts

• A rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of England over the American colonies

The Washington Elm – Cambridge, MA

• George Washington is said to have taken command of the American Continental Army under the Washington Elm in Cambridge on July 3, 1775.

• The tree survived until the 1920s and "was thought to be a survivor of the primeval forest".

Harlem’s Tree of Hope

• Musicians and actors gathered there on the sidewalk between to major venues of the era: the Lafayette Theater and Connie's Inn (formerly the Shuffle Inn) on this street known alternately as The Boulevard of Dreams; The Stroll; or simply The Corner.

Apollo Theater Amateur Night Tradition• A now legendary section of the

trunk was secured by Ralph Cooper, Sr., a former presenter at the Lafayette Theatre, who was retooling his popular "Amateur Night" for the stage of the new, more socially progressive, Apollo Theater.

Billy Mitchell: since 1965, an usher, a gift shop manager, tour guide and a talent coordinator for Amateur Nights at the Apollo.

Hare Krishna Tree - NYC• Tompkins Square Park, which has a

significant population of mature American Elm trees that survived the spread of Dutch Elm disease in the 1930s.

• Sacred site to followers of the Hare Krishna religion for it was here, in 1966, that the movement’s founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, held the first outdoor chanting session in the United States.

• The famous Krishna chant, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,” was first uttered beneath the shade of this impressive Elm. Adherents danced, chanted, and prayed beneath the tree for two hours on October 9, 1966.

• Among those in attendance was the famous Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg.