| Ulmus villosa | |
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| Ulmus villosa, Kew. Photo: Ronnie Nijboer, Bonte Hoek kwekerijen. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Ulmaceae |
| Genus: | Ulmus |
| Species: | U. villosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Ulmus villosa Brandis ex Gamble |
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| Synonyms | |
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Ulmus villosa Brandis ex Gamble, the Cherry-bark Elm, is one of the more distinctive Asiatic elms, and a species capable of remarkable longevity. It is endemic to the valleys of the Kashmir at elevations from 1200 m to 2500 m but has become increasingly rare owing to its popularity as cattle fodder, and mature trees are now largely restricted to temples and shrines where they are treated as sacred [1]. Some of these trees are believed to be aged over 800 years [2]
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Growing up to 25 m high, the tree is rather lightly and pendulously branched, the bark smooth with distinctive horizontal bands of lenticels, although it eventually becomes very coarsely furrowed.[3] The oblong-elliptic-acute leaves are < 11 cm long by 5 cm broad. The wind-pollinated apetalous flowers appear in spring, and are particularly densely clustered, the white hairs covering the perianth and ovary contrasting with the purplish anthers. The samarae are elliptic and up to 12 mm long, densely hairy on both sides [4][5].
U. villosa has a low susceptibility to Dutch elm disease and the elm leaf beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola [1], but a moderate susceptibility to Elm Yellows [6].
A tree once grown at Kew Gardens, London, attained a height of 25 m and was considered very elegant, although it tended to shed shoots after flowering heavily; it was felled in the 1990s after succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease. Two trees planted as part of the UK Forestry Commission's elm trials at the Westonbirt Arboretum in the 1970s also died, although the cause of death has not been recorded. Plantings elsewhere in Europe are few and far between. Several trees survive in the Gijsbrecht-Amstelpark area of Amsterdam and in the port [2]. Ulmus villosa is not known to be in commerce.
The specimen planted in 1989 at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens at an exposed location on clay has grown more in width than height to form an amorphous (albeit healthy) mound of vegetation; in 2005 it was 11.6 m high with a trunk 38 cm d.b.h..