''Ulmus'' × ''hollandica'' 'Dauvessei'

Ulmus × hollandica cultivar
Hybrid parentage U. glabra × U. minor
Cultivar 'Dauvessei'
Origin France[1]

The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Dauvessei' is a very rare cultivar said to have originated at the D. Dauvesse nursery in Orléans, France before 1877.[1][2]

Description

The branches ascend to form a broad, pyramidal crown; the leaves bear a vague resemblance to Wych Elm, but are generally smaller, rarely exceeding 10 cm long by 5 cm wide, thinner in texture,[3] and with base more oblique.[2] The US National Arboretum described specimens in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., as similar in appearance to English Elm (in its lower latitude growth-form), forking at about 2 m, and about 20 m tall and 18 m broad.[4]

Pests and diseases

The tree is susceptible to Dutch elm disease.

Cultivation

There are no confirmed surviving specimens of 'Dauvessei'. The tree was once grown at Kew Gardens where it attained a height of 40 feet (12 m) having been obtained from Lee at Hammersmith in 1879.[5] In the United States putative specimens can be found along The Mall in Washington D.C. among American Elms on either side of the Reflecting Pool (2009);[6] the tree grown at the Waite Arboretum in Australia died in 2002.

However, in the UK a broad pyramidal tree matching descriptions of 'Dauvessei',[5][2] and 'Dauvessei' herbarium material from a specimen in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., and producing U. minor or hybrid-type samarae, stands in the east corner of Claremont Park, Leith, by Seafield Place. Its tidy shape suggests that it may be a named cultivar.[7][8][9] The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is known to have planted exotic elm cultivars across the city at the beginning of the 20th century, though 'Dauvessei' does not appear in the RBGE's 1902 accessions list from the Späth nursery, the largest Edinburgh consignment of elm cultivars of that period.[10]

Hybrid cultivars

'Dauvessei' was crossed with Ulmus × hollandica, U. glabra, and U. minor in the Dutch elm breeding programme before World War II, but none of the progeny were of particular note and were discarded.[11]

Synonymy

References

  1. 1 2 Jacobson, Arthur Lee (1996). North American Landscape Trees. p. 655.
  2. 1 2 3 Krüssman, Gerd (1984). Manual of Cultivated Broad-Leaved Trees & Shrubs. 3. p. 410.
  3. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  4. Label of herbarium specimen WAG.1847155, Botany Catalogues, Naturalis Biodiversity Center. West Potomac Park specimen, Washington, D.C.
  5. 1 2 Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. 7. p. 1874. Republished 2004 Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781108069380
  6. Sherald, James L., 'Elms of the Monumental Core' (Washington D.C.), National Park Service (2009),  p.7
  7. The Seafield Place Elm may be seen on Google Streetview (May 2016, pre-leaf flush).
  8. Google Maps: Seafield Pl - Google Maps (May 2015), accessdate: August 19, 2016
  9. Google Maps: Seafield Pl - Google Maps (July 2008), accessdate: August 19, 2016
  10. Accessions book. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 1902. pp. 45, 47.
  11. Went, J. A. (1954). The Dutch elm disease - Summary of 15 years' hybridisation and selection work (19371952). European Journal of Plant Pathology, Vol 60, 2, March 1954.
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