Cork Elm Rock Elm
=Habitat and Range.=--Dry, gravelly soils, rich soils, river banks.
Quebec through Ontario.
Maine,--not reported; New Hampshire,--rare and extremely local; Meriden
and one or two other places (Jessup); Vermont,--rare, Bennington, Pownal
(Robbins), Knowlton (Brainerd), Highgate (Eggleston); comparatively
abundant in Champlain valley and westward (T. H. Haskins, Garden and
Forest, V, 86);
Massachusetts,--rare; Rhode Island and
Connecticut,--not reported native.
South to Tennessee; west to Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.
=Habit.=--A large tree, scarcely inferior at its best to U. Americana,
50-75 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 2-3 feet; reaching in southern
Michigan a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 5 feet; trunk rather
slender; branches short and stout, often twiggy in the interior of the
tree; branchlets slender, spreading, sometimes with a drooping tendency;
head rather narrow, round-topped.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk brownish-gray, in old trees irregularly separated
into deep, wide, flat-topped ridges; branches grayish-brown; leaf-scars
conspicuous; season's shoots light brown, more or less pubescent or
glabrous, oblong-dotted; branches and branchlets often marked lengthwise
with corky, wing-like ridges.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate to oblong, pointed, scales
downy-ciliate, pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-4 inches long,
half as wide, glabrous above, minutely pubescent beneath; outline ovate,
doubly serrate (less sharp than the serratures in U. Americana); apex
acuminate; base inequilateral, produced and rounded on one side, acute
or slightly rounded on the other; veins straight; leafstalk short,
stout; stipules soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Appearing before the leaves from lateral
buds of the preceding season, in drooping racemes; calyx lobes 7-8,
broad-triangular, with rounded edges and a mostly obtuse apex: pedicels
thread-like, jointed; stamens 5-10, exserted, anthers purple, ovary
2-styled: stigmas recurved or spreading.
=Fruit.=--Samara ovate, broadly oval, or obovate, pubescent, margin
densely fringed, resembling fruit of U. Americana but somewhat larger.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers a moist,
rich soil, in open situations; less variable in habit than the American
elm and a smaller tree with smaller foliage, scarcely varying enough to
justify its extensive use as a substitute. Not often obtainable in
nurseries, but readily transplanted, and easily propagated from the
seed.
1. Winter buds, at the time the flowers open.
2. Flowering branch.
3. Flower, side view.
4. Flower, side view, perianth and stamens partly removed.
5. Fruiting branch.
CELTIS OCCIDENTALIS, L.