| Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis | |
|---|---|
| Guernsey Elms, Amsterdam. Photo: Ronnie Nijboer, Bonte Hoek kwekerijen. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| clade: | Angiosperms |
| clade: | Eudicots |
| clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Ulmaceae |
| Genus: | Ulmus |
| Species: | U. minor |
| Subspecies: | U. minor subsp. sarniensis |
| Trinomial name | |
| Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis (C.K.Schneid.) Stace |
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| Synonyms | |
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Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis Stace [1], known variously as Guernsey Elm, Jersey Elm, Wheatley Elm, or Southampton Elm, once enjoyed much popularity in Britain, where it was widely cultivated for street planting. However the Dutch elm disease pandemic has now destroyed all the mature trees in the UK save a few at Preston Park in Brighton, Peasholm Park in Scarborough, and in Edinburgh.
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The appeal of the tree lay chiefly in its compact, columnar form, not dissimilar to the Lombardy Poplar. Rarely exceeding a height of 27 m, the tree has long stiff ascending branches forming a narrow pyramidal crown [2][3]. The small leaves and samarae are similar to those of the Field Elm group in general; like others of the group, the tree suckers very freely. The tree often developed highly distinctive cancerous burrs on its branches or trunk.
The Guernsey Elm is very susceptible to Dutch elm disease.
The origin of the tree remains obscure. The Guernsey Elm was introduced to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight by Albert the Prince Consort, where it survives today as suckers along the lane leading to Barton Manor Farm. Guernsey Elm was also planted in large numbers across Amsterdam, but eventually replaced by the similarly fastigiate but much more disease-resistant clone, 'Columella' [5].
Among the largest surviving specimens of Guernsey Elm in the UK are the two in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh (2011), girth 3 m, and the one in Preston Park, Brighton. The latter is 34 m tall with a trunk 115 cm d.b.h. (diameter at breast height) in 2006, part of a line of trees averaging 30 m in height planted circa 1880. The tallest on record in the UK stands on Paradise Drive, Eastbourne and had a height of 36m in 2007.
The tree is named for the Channel Island (Sarnia is the Ancient Roman name for Guernsey), whence it may have originated. A similar tree is found along the Brittany coast, referred to in several 18th and 19th century French treatises as 'l'Orme male' [4][5] owing to its phallic resemblance and it is still sometimes referred to as the Male Elm in Guernsey, although no mature trees survive there either. The synonym Wheatley Elm was derived from a tree planted at Wheatley Park, Doncaster, whither it was introduced and propagated by Sir William Cooke in the early 19th century [6]. The tree was also raised in great numbers at the Rogers nursery in Southampton in the late 1800s [7], which probably explains the synonym Southampton Elm. Although the tree is also known as the Jersey Elm, its introduction from Guernsey has been clearly chronicled.
'Dicksonii', commonly known as Dickson's Golden Elm, is a yellow-leaved form of the Guernsey Elm raised in Chester in 1900 by Dickson's Nursery,[8] which marketed it as the 'Golden Cornish Elm'.[9] Slower-growing than the type [10] and described as "an attractive tree" [11] with leaves "a fine yellow colour, said to last till autumn",[12] 'Dicksonii' was granted the Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1969. Among the rare survivors are two specimens in Peasholm Park, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, re-discovered in 1994 during a National Tree Register audit of the trees in Peasholm Glen.[13] The horticulturalist Christopher Lloyd used Dickson's Golden Elm in his celebrated long herbaceous borders at Great Dixter Gardens, Northiam, East Sussex.[14]
None known.