Vegeta (Huntingdon Elm)
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| Huntingdon Elm |
|---|
 |
| Hybrid parentage |
| U. glabra × U. minor |
| Cultivar |
| Vegeta |
| Origin |
| England |
U. × hollandica Vegeta, the Huntingdon Elm, is an old English cultivar raised at Brampton, near Huntingdon by nurserymen Wood & Ingram in 1746, allegedly from seed collected from an Ulmus × hollandica hybrid at nearby Hinchingbrooke Park. The tree was often confused by nineteenth century writers with the Chichester Elm, a very similar cultivar raised earlier in the 18th century.
Before the advent of Dutch elm disease many of the Huntingdon Elms commonly grew to over 35 m in height, with long, straight, ascending branches. [1]. The glossy, oval leaves are < 12 cm long by < 7.5 cm broad contracting at the apex to a sharp point, on smooth branchlets that never feature corky wings. The tightly-clustered flowers are bright red, and appear in early spring. The samarae are obovate, < 25 mm long. The tree suckers freely, and a comparatively high percentage of the seed is usually viable.
The tree was widely cultivated in England owing to its very rapid growth (< 3 m per annum) and attractive wide-spreading form, but its habit of forking sometimes led to splitting of the trunk and premature death. A reputed Huntingdon Elm at Magdalen College, Oxford, was for a time the largest elm known in Britain before it was blown down in 1911. It measured 44 m tall, its trunk at breast height 2.6 m in diameter. However, its calculated age would place its planting before the introduction of the Huntingdon Elm, and the tree in question may well have been a Chichester Elm.
The Huntingdon Elm is notable today for its moderate tolerance of Dutch elm disease; a moribund clump on a farm near Portsmouth coppiced in 1932 still survives (2006) despite first exhibiting signs of the disease in 2001.
There are many surviving trees around the Millfields, Hackney, London, UK, and very old examples survive on the university campuses at Cambridge; others can still be found at Abergavenny, Caernarfon, Clifton (Bristol), Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Contents |
[edit] Arboreta etc. accessions
[edit] North America
- Holden Arboretum acc. no. 70-128
- Morton Arboretum acc. nos. 593-30, 71-70
- New York Botanical Garden acc. no. 529/89
[edit] Europe
- Brighton & Hove City Council, UK, NCCPG Elm Collection [2].
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh acc. no. 19699364
[edit] Nurseries
[edit] North America
None known.
[edit] Europe
- Brian Lewington [3], Heathfield, East Sussex, UK.
[edit] Australasia
- Established Tree Transplanters Pty. Ltd., Wandin, Victoria, Australia. [4]
[edit] Synonymy
- Ulmus campestris wendworthiensis Hort.: Schelle, in Beissner et al., Handb. Laubh.-Benenn. 84, 1903.
- Ulmus campestris wentworthiensis: Spath, (Berlin, Germany), Cat. 143, p. 135, 1910-11.
- Ulmus campestris Wentworthii: Dippel, Handb. Laubh. 2: 24, 1892.
- Ulmus huntingdonensis: Dieck, (Zoschen, Germany) Haupt-Cat. Nachtrag 1, 1887, p.28.
- Ulmus huntingdonii Hort.: Rehder, in Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. 6: 3411, 1917, in synonymy.
- Ulmus wentworthii pendula: C. de Vos, Handboek, Supplement, 16, 1890.
[edit] References
- Bean, W. J. (1981). Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain, 7th edition. Murray, England.
- Brookes A. H. (2006). An evaluation of disease-resistant hybrid and exotic elms as larval host plants for the White-letter Hairstreak butterfly Satyrium w-album, Part 1. Butterfly Conservation, Lulworth, UK.
- Elwes, H. J. & Henry, A. (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. VII. pp 1848-1929. Private publication. [5]
- Green, P. S. (1964). Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus. Arnoldia, Vol. 24. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. [6]
- White, J. & More, D. (2002). Trees of Britain and northern Europe. Cassell, London.
