''Ulmus'' × ''hollandica'' 'Pitteurs'

Ulmus × hollandica cultivar

Ulmus 'Pitteurs', drawing from Morren,[1] also picturing H. B. T de Pitteurs?
Hybrid parentage U. glabra × U. minor
Cultivar 'Pitteurs'
Origin Belgium

Ulmus × hollandica 'Pitteurs' or 'Pitteursii', probably one of a number of hybrid cultivars arising from the crossing of the Wych Elm Ulmus glabra with a variety of Field Elm Ulmus minor, was first identified by Morren as l'orme Pitteurs.[2] Elwes and Henry (1913) and Krüssmann (1976) listed it as an Ulmus × hollandica cultivar.[3] It was named after the landowner Henri Bonaventure Trudon de Pitteurs of Saint-Trond, near Liege, Belgium, who discovered and first propagated the tree on his estate.

Description

'Pitteurs' was a tall tree, chiefly distinguished by its huge, rounded, convex leaves, < 20 cm long by < 19 cm broad, a little attenuate at the apex and with prominent venation. Kirchner[4] and Petzold,[5] describing a tree by that name from the Royal State Tree Nursery at Sanssouci, noted (1864) that the slightly glossy dark green leaves were obtuse-toothed, and appeared reddish-brown when they unfolded.[6]

Cultivation

Reputedly one of two varieties grown from seed obtained in 1845 by Henri de Pitteurs[7] of Sint-Truiden or Saint-Trond, near Liege, Belgium, the tree was planted on his estate and along roadsides in the region. Gillekens noted in 1891 that in the areas of Liège and Limbourg, 'Pitteurs' was preferred to 'Belgica'.[8] Augustine Henry thought the tree, which produced shoots growing almost one metre a year, probably identical with those called orme Saint-Trond he saw at Looymans' nursery at Oudenbosch, which he considered perhaps identical when young to a variety of Wych Elm occasionally sold as var. macrophylla.[9] An elm said to be similar and also cultivated on the Pitteurs estate was 'Folia Rhomboidea'.

The Späth nursery of Berlin sold an elm which they said went by the name of 'Pitteurs' in some nurseries but which they themselves called U. hollandica.[10][11]

In 1998 an unsuccessful search of the de Pitteurs-Hiegaerts Estate (now in the public domain and known as the Speelhof park) was mounted in an attempt to rediscover the elm.[12] It is assumed the cultivar fell victim to Dutch elm disease, as did thousands of other elms in the same district. However, 'Pitteurs' was known to have been marketed (as U. montana 'Pitteursi') in Poland in the 19th century by the Ulrich nursery,[13] Warsaw, and so may still survive in Eastern Europe. Several trees were thought to survive near Brighton, England;[14] the only confirmed specimen, however, at the Extra Mural Cemetery in Brighton, was blown down in the Great Storm of 1987. 'Pitteurs' is not known to have been introduced to North America or Australasia.

Accessions

None known.

Hybrid cultivars

'Pitteurs' was crossed with Ulmus × hollandica in the Dutch elm breeding programme before World War II, but none of the progeny were retained.[15]

Synonymy

References

  1. 1 2 Morren, Charles (1851). "Nouvelle notice". Journal d'agriculture pratique.
  2. ↑ Morren, Charles (1848). "Note sur l’Orme-Pitteurs ou orme gras à grandes feuilles". Journal d'agriculture pratique.
  3. ↑ Krüssmann, Johann Gerd, Handbuch der Laubgehölze (Vol. 3) (Paul Parey, Berlin and Hamburg, 1976); trans. Michael E. Epp, Manual of Cultivated Broad-Leaved Trees and Shrubs (Vol. 3) (Batsford, Timber Press, Beaverton, Oregon, 1984-6), p.410
  4. ↑ kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?id=2793
  5. ↑ kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?id=2792
  6. ↑ Petzold; Kirchner (1864). Arboretum Muscaviense. p. 566.
  7. ↑ Schelev, A. (1854) Annuaire statistique et historique belge, page 325, Brussel - Leipzig
  8. ↑ Gillekens, Léopold Guillaume, Éléments d'arboriculture forestière (1891), p.40
  9. ↑ Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. 7. p. 1873.
  10. ↑ Späthbuch 1720-1920, p.263
  11. ↑ Katalog (PDF). 108. Berlin, Germany: L. Späth Baumschulenweg. 1902–1903. pp. 132–133.
  12. ↑ Driesen, W. (2008), Stedelijke bibliotheek de Leidrad, Sint-Truiden
  13. ↑ Ulrich, C. (1894), Katalog Drzew i Krezewow, C. Ulrich, Rok 1893–94, Warszawa
  14. ↑ Johnson, Owen (ed.) (2003). Champion Trees of Britain & Ireland. Whittet Press, ISBN 978-1-873580-61-5.
  15. ↑ Went, J. C. (1954). The Dutch elm disease - Summary of 15 years' hybridisation and selection work (1937–1952). European Journal of Plant Pathology, Vol 60, 2, March 1954.
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