Wildlife
English elms were once a very common sight in the countryside of Europe, North America and Asia. However, this majestic tree was devastated by Dutch elm disease, a fungal infection that claimed an estimated 25 million trees in Britain alone. Sadly this iconic tree has now all but disappeared from the landscape. It will be remembered on rich farmland soils and parklands throughout the country, it is also a classic hedgerow tree of English lowlands. Mature English elms can grow to over 30 metres tall, producing a fine wood that has great strength and durability. They are deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the winter and the small winged seeds are dispersed by the wind in autumn.
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Vanishing elms
Beetles carry a fungus that spelled the demise of millions of trees.
English elms were once one of Britain's most characteristic trees, used for making anything from boats and furniture to water pipes and coffins. Then, in the late 20th century, elms were devastated by a fungus that was accidentally introduced on a shipment of elm tree logs from North America. It spread throughout the country via elm bark beetles and killed an estimated 25 million trees changing the British landscape forever. Saplings grown from a single elm that survived the disease are now being studied by experts at Kew Gardens, in the hope that the secret of its survival can be identified and the species brought back.
The English elm can be found in a number of locations including: Europe, United Kingdom. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the English elm distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Ulmus procera Salisb., the English, Common, or more lately Atinian, Elm was, before the advent of Dutch elm disease, one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe. A survey of genetic diversity in Spain, Italy and the UK revealed that the English Elms are genetically identical, clones of a single tree, the Atinian Elm once widely used for training vines, and brought to the British Isles by Romans for the purpose of supporting and training vines. Thus, despite its name, the origin of the tree is widely believed to be from Italy, although it is possible it hailed from what is now Turkey, where it is still used in the cultivation of raisins.
R. H. Richens suggested that the tree is a particular clone of the variable species Ulmus minor, referring to it as Ulmus minor var. vulgaris. Dr Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh writes (2009): "The advent of DNA fingerprinting has shed considerable light on the question. A number of studies have now shown that the distinctive forms that Melville elevated to species and Richens lumped together as field elm are single clones, all genetically identical, that have been propagated by vegetative means such as cuttings or root suckers. This means that enigmatic British elms such as ... English Elm have turned out to be single clones of field elm." Most current taxonomies, however, do not list English elm under the heading "Ulmus minor var.".
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Farmland
Hedgerows
Parkland
Temperate grassland
