Local Types
I have listed below elms that are representative of some of the species or groups I have alluded
to. The list includes the most frequently encountered elms. The trees are, where possible mature
and having survived some 20 years of Dutch Elm Disease I hope they will survive at least another
twenty.
1) Ulmus glabra (Wych Elm)
TQ 381007 Cornmill Stream, Waltham Abbey - A series of Wych Elms occur as stools in a
hedgerow by the Cornmill Stream, often producing huge, broad and very scabrid leaves.
2) Ulmus procera (English Elm)
TQ 386963 - Gilwell Lane, Chingford - English Elm suckers abound in the hedgerows here
and around the nearby Yates Meadow. The nearby Gilwell Lane boundary bank is well worth
a visit (page 38).
3) Ulmus minor (East Anglian Elm)
TQ 433968 - Wellfields, Loughton - A fine stand of five large mature trees of this group. A
visit to the Hatch Grove, Western Sewage Farm site, TQ 397934 has two other very different
members of this group.
4) Ulmus glabra x Ulmus minor (Hybrid Elm)
a) TQ 431967 - Church Lane, Loughton - Just around the corner from the Wellfields East
Anglian Elm site are a group of 9 Hybrid Elms fronting on to the road. (Care needs to be taken
here as there is no pavement.) The suckering trees are apparently Dutch Elm (Ulmus x
Hollandica nm. hallandica).
b) TQ 418997 - Woodredon, Upshire - Apparently naturally occurring Wych Elm/East
Anglian Elm intermediates. I suspect they are Lineage Elms. Of special note is the superb
pollard with a girth of nearly 11 ft., one of the few remaining in Essex.
Recording Elms
Elm Data
There are two criteria by which information should be gathered.
1) The morphological features of the elm
2) Its local and immediate environment
On p. 24 I have reproduced a suggested elm recording card which incorporates a list of the
features it would be desirable to record when examining elms. Does it have a broad spreading
crown or is it narrow? Does the trunk fork low down or is it straight for thirty or forty feet? Is
the bark smooth, fissured or does it break into plates? Does the tree have suckers? A typical
leaf (if such a thing exists) should be collected, a life size photocopy made and stuck to the
recording card. The tree's girth needs to be measured and other relevant features noted, i.e. the
presence or absence of Dutch Elm Disease, time of leaf fall or the presence or absence of
Eriophyid galls. It is important to note if a tree occurs as a standard, pollard or coppice stool.
An appraisal needs to be made of the elm's local environment. Is it growing at a long-es-
tablished site, for example a coppice wood, hedgerow, park or forest, or is it growing as a more
recently established amenity planting? Specific features of a site may be of interest: is it growing
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