Description
The tree often exceeded 40 m in height with a trunk < 2 m d.b.h. The largest specimen ever recorded in England, at Forthampton Court, near Tewkesbury, was 46 m tall. The leaves are dark green, almost orbicular, < 10 cm long, without the pronounced acuminate tip at the apex typical of the genus. Wind-pollinated, the small, reddish-purple hermaphrodite apetalous flowers appear in early spring before the leaves . The tree does not produce fertile seed as it is female-sterile, and natural regeneration is entirely by root suckers. Seed production in England was often unknown in any case.
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The classic 'figure-of-eight' shape of English Elms, Hyde Park: James Duffield Harding's The Great Exhibition of 1851
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English Elms, Rugby School, 1907.
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English Elms in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne
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English Elms in hedgerow, Alfriston, East Sussex, UK
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Leaves from a specimen tree in Sussex, UK, 2009
Read more about this topic: Ulmus Procera
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