petiole. Some leaves have three or more points (see p. 14).
The bark generally remains smooth, when compared to other elms, even in large trees.
This elm is regarded as a good and not very variable species.
The species sets seed regularly: the samara with a tendency to be rounded rather than pear
shaped, with the seed set in the centre.
Wych Elm does not produce suckers.
In Essex this species is widespread but thinly scattered.
I suspect many of its occurrences are due to planting, but elsewhere in woods and along
stream sides it may be an established native. It is rather uncommon in south-east Essex. It
occurs in a few woods as a coppice stool. Richens (1967) noted it rarely in and around villages.
English Elm (Ulmus procera Salisb.)
Mature trees of this elm can be very large, up to 130 ft. high with a very straight trunk, some
branches leaving the trunk at right angles. The crown, in leaf, tends to give a very solid
appearance.
The leaves are medium sized, very broad, almost invariably with a very rough upper surface,
are dark green and quite often covered in the pimple-like galls of an Eriophyid mite. The leaves
illustrated on p. 15 are all taken from well grown suckers.
In mature trees the bark is fairly rugged, with vertical and horizontal fissures causing the
bark to break into plates.
I have never seen the seed of this species. Apparently the samara is rounded as Wych Elm,
but the seed is set slightly off centre in a typical example. In Britain this species rarely sets
viable seed.
This elm was typical of south Essex, now unfortunately reduced to suckers; I don't know of
any large mature trees. It is gaining much ground locally by suckering. Richens (1967) records
two types of English Elm in Essex. The division is basically on tooth number. English Elm
was a fashionable planted tree of c. 1780-1820.
East Anglian Elm (Ulmus minor Miller)
This elm, although listed under the single scientific name above, is probably an aggregate of
many species, certainly of many greatly different forms. It would probably be better to refer to
it as Ulmus minor agg.. R. H. Richens (1967) included nine biometrically assessed groups of
this species for Essex alone.
The habit of the mature tree is very variable. Some are tall, thin (see Plate 4) and graceful.
The Plot Elm (Ulmus plotii) is described as being rather like an ostrich plume. Melville did not
record this type, essentially a tree of the Midlands, from Essex, but Oliver Rackham has found
trees close to U. plottii at Terling. Others have a broad, open, five-sided crown (see Plate 6),
others have distinctly pendulous branches (Plate 2).
The leaves are smooth on the lower and upper surface (I have found one with quite a scabrid
upper surface to the leaf). The leaves are small to medium-sized with an elongated, very
asymmetrical lamina, a relatively long petiole and are light green in colour.
The leaves on p. 16,18, 19 and the back cover illustrate part of the range of variation within
this group.
The bark on mature trees can be quite rugged with a tendency to have vertical fissures.
The samara tends towards being pear-shaped rather than rounded. I have found a few trees
with samarae in 1989.
In Essex this group is widespread and often common, particularly so in central and north
Essex. Many mature trees have survived the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease. It occurs commonly
in hedgerows, and many members of this group produce suckers (possibly all). Sucker leaves
differ greatly from the leaves on the parent tree. This tree has also been planted occasionally
as an amenity tree in Essex.
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