Ulmus pumila 'Pendula'

'Pendula' was confirmed as a Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila cultivar by Gerd Krüssmann (de) in Handb. Laubgeh. 2: 540. 1962.

Description

The tree was described as having pendulous branches bearing small leaves with equal teeth.^[1]

Pests and diseases

See under Ulmus pumila.

Cultivation

Commonly cultivated in China;^[2][3] much more rarely in Europe and North America. The tree is probably still grown in Longenecker Horticultural Gardens, University of Wisconsin.^[4] All the specimens grown at the Morton Arboretum, Illinois, obtained in the 1950s had either died or been felled by 2008 because of their poor condition.

Notable trees

Three old examples of 'Pendula', resembling Meyer's 1908 photograph of a mature 'Pendula' in Fengtai,^[5] survive in Edinburgh. The oldest (height 12 m, bole-girth over 2 m) overlooks the old railway line, now Ferry Road Path, between 7 and 9 Rosebank Road, north of the Botanic Gardens.^[6] They are low, straggling trees with heavy, twisting horizontal branches, and long pendulous pinnate branchlets, like stouter versions of U. pinnato-ramosa. The stouter branchlets match those in Meyer's 1915 photograph of a specimen in the Peking Botanic Garden.^[7] The leaves, too, are largish by pumila standards, on average 9 cm by 3.5, leaving open the question of possible hybridisation in China before the tree became a cultivar. Two others are streetside trees, planted on ground below street level, at 47 York Road and at the intersection of Royal Crescent and Dundonald Street.^[8] There are smaller trees of the same type on the former railway cutting, close to the Rosebank Road elm.

A probable example grows at the Friston Forest car park of in East Sussex, England. Cloned in 2011, a specimen is now under analysis at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

Synonymy

• Ulmus campestris (: minor) pendula: David, Revue Hort. II. 4: 101. 1845.
• Ulmus sibirica Hort.: Lavallée,^[9] Arb. Segrez, 237, 1877, in synonymy.

References

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