| Ulmus glabra | |
|---|---|
Camperdown Elm, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. |
|
| Details | |
| Cultivar | 'Camperdownii' |
| Origin | Camperdown Park, Dundee, Scotland |
The Camperdown Elm Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii' is a cultivar which cannot reproduce from seed. Although still classed as a cultivar of U. glabra, the tree was considered a nothomorph of U. × hollandica var. vegeta by Green [1] (1964), not U. glabra.[1]
Contents |
The grafted Camperdown Elm slowly develops a broad, flat head that may eventually build as high as 4 m (13 feet) and an incommensurately wide crown with a contorted, weeping habit.[2]
A cultivar of the Wych Elm, 'Camperdownii' is susceptible to Dutch Elm disease. However there are still many examples to be found in parks and gardens across the British Isles as it often avoids detection by the Scolytae beetle (a major vector of Dutch Elm Disease) because of its diminutive height. In North America it often escapes infection possibly because the American vectors of the disease do not feed on Wych Elm; however its leaves are heavily damaged there by the Elm Leaf Beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola [2], Elm Yellows [3], and disfigured by leaf-mining and leaf-rolling insects, such as the Elm casebearer, Coleophora ulmifoliella [4].
About 1835 - 1840 (often miscalled as '1640'), the Earl of Camperdown’s head forester, David Taylor, discovered a mutant contorted branch growing along the ground in the forest at Camperdown House, in Dundee, Scotland. The earl's gardener produced the first Camperdown Elm by grafting it to the trunk of a Wych Elm Ulmus glabra. Every Camperdown Elm in the world is from a cutting taken from that original mutant cutting and is usually grafted on a Wych elm trunk. Other grafting stock has been used, including Dutch Elm Ulmus × hollandica, Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila, and English Elm Ulmus procera (although this ultimately produces suckers). The tree is grafted at circa 1.5 m above ground level.
Camperdown Elm is cold hardy, suffering more from summer drought than winter cold (to zone 4), although 90% of the University of Minnesota elm trials specimens were lost during the exceptionally severe winter of 2002-2003.[3] The cultivar requires a large open space in order to develop fully, and so is not recommended for small home grounds. The tree is often confused with the much taller 'Horizontalis' (Weeping Wych Elm) owing to both being given the epithet 'Pendula' at some stage.[1]
Camperdown Elms satisfied a mid-Victorian passion for curiosities in the 'Gardenesque' gardens then in vogue. Many examples were planted, as 'rarities', in Britain and America, wherever elite gardens were extensive enough for tree collections (see Arboretum). There are many on university campuses, often planted as memorials. Camperdown Elms are used in stately landscaping of American university campuses, such as at the campus of the University of Idaho, where a number were planted many decades ago. Others featured in townscapes such as at the Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle, and Kripalu Yoga Center, Stockbridge, MA. The tree was also introduced to Australia, where a number still survive, notably in Victoria.
In Prospect Park, Brooklyn, a Camperdown Elm planted in 1872 near the Boat House has developed into a picturesque weatherbeaten specimen, no more than four metres high, like an oversized bonsai. Described by the poet Marianne Moore as "our crowning curio," the Prospect Park tree is considered the outstanding specimen tree in the Park.[4] Halifax Public Gardens contains a similar specimen, located next to the Boer War Memorial fountain, which displays the same characteristics as the Prospect Park tree.
The UK Champion Trees as listed by TROBI [5] are in Scotland, at Baxter Gardens, Dundee, and at Ayr. In France, two grow by the gate at corner of rue de Buzenval & rue de Lagney in the Square Sarah Bernhardt, Paris (20th Arrondissement). NB: Two Corkscrew Willows at the entrance near the corner of rue de Lagny & rue Mounet Sully look the same during winter.
In Gardner Massachusetts, there is a Camperdown Elm on Parker Street in the front yard of a former store now currently a private residence, towering over the peak of the two story building with a trunk circumference of over 9 feet. The tree has not been touched for decades and is infested with leaf miners and borers, there is also a significant amount of trunk rot and large missing limbs. As of late June 2010 a local resident Nate Thibault, has taken action to create a restoration plan for the tree. The tree's age is undetermined but believed to have reached its maturity.
In Saint John, New Brunswick, there is a Camperdown Elm on Red Head Road on the front yard of a former farm, currently a private residence. The owner is currently trying to locate the tree's history. It is at least 100 years old.
(Widely available)
(Widely available)