fed on them first they refused to eat the leaves of the Italian Elm! He also mentions that the
Atinian thrived much better and grew taller than the Italian. Thus it seems likely that in exporting
vine-training elms to Iberia and ultimately Britain, he only used the one type of elm. He probably
also fovind it easier to propagate as it suckers much faster than other minor elms.
When the enclosures came to England this readily available rootstock was used to plant up
many miles of hedges in Essex and other southern counties. Although producing copious
pollen, the seeds rarely set, so it has been isolated genetically from other minor elms as a
result of purely vegetative propagation, hence its universal susceptibility to Dutch Elm disease.
Coleman has also shown, using DNA finger printing, that several of our more obvious TJ.
minor segregates, including 'stricta' the Cornish Elm, 'sarniensis' the Jersey Elm and
'plotii' Plot's Elm/Lock Elm, are also separate genetically uniform clones that can only
have spread in such large pure patches as a result of propagation by man. In common with TJ.
procera, 'plotii' has scabrid leaves. It also has a twisted grain to the wood that locks up saw
blades - hence its alternative name. The other main segregates, 'carpinifolia' Smooth-leaved
Elm, 'diversifolia' East Anglian Elm, 'coritana' Coritanian Elm and 'angustifolia'
Goodyer's Elm have not yet been investigated.
Unfortunately nobody seems to have been brave enough to sort out TJ. minor variation on
the European continent, so we don't yet know whether man brought over a series of elm
suckers selected from a continuous range of variation within the continental population, or
whether on the continent local clones form relatively pure populations, either naturally, or
again as a result of man's intervention. Even the second edition of Vol: 1 Flora Europaea
chickens out on the minor elms and lumps them all together.
How different then is Ulmus procera from the U. minor series of elms? Is it likely to be just
one node in a continuous range of variation? One character that separates it from the smooth-
leaved group of minor elms is the scabrid upper surface to tire leaf. When rubbing one's
finger across the upper surface of the leaf it feels like fine glasspaper. The underside of the
leaf is usually, however, soft to the touch.
Examination of the indumentum under the microscope reveals that on the upper surface a
fairly dense array of stiff needle-pointed hairs occurs on the lamina surface. These are up to
0.5mm long and have a hollow swollen basal bulb. The rest of the hair however is filled by
a solid matrix that appears to have been laid down in hemispherical layers down from the
apex. These hairs arc rigid and very sharp. When a finger is brushed over them, they either
snap off at the junction of the hair and the hollow basal bulb, leaving a stiff jagged spike that
en mass we detect with our fingers as a rough surface - or they impale one of our dead skin
cells (as can be seen under the microscope).
On the lower surface rather similar hairs occur, but they are longer (to 1mm), usually curly
in shape, are flexible, feel soft to the touch and do not break off when stroked. They are
hollow and do not seem to be filled with the solid matrix that distinguishes the hairs on the
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 46, January 2005
15