Ulmus Wallichiana - Cultivation and Uses

Cultivation and Uses

Endemic to an impoverished region with no fossil fuel resources, U. wallichiana is heavily lopped for firewood, and also for fodder, leaving it in danger of extermination in some areas. Elsewhere however, it has been deliberately planted near villages and farmhouses. Recognizing its predicament, efforts have been made in India to conserve the tree by drying the seeds and placing them in refrigerated storage. A species of considerable commercial potential, research has also been undertaken into optimal propagation methods.

The tree was first introduced to the West in the 1920s, with the arrival of a specimen at the Arnold Arboretum from Chamba, a hill station overlooking the north Indian plain. The tree soon proved eminently unsuited to the cold Boston winters and died, but not before a five-budded cutting could be sent to S. G. A. Doorenbos, Parks Director at The Hague, in 1929. Doorenbos was able to graft four of the buds, and the following year had a row of strongly growing plants. The trees were again badly damaged by frost, but in 1938 were used as a source of anti-fungal genes in the Dutch elm breeding programme and crossed with the winter-hardy Wych Elm Ulmus glabra clone 'Exoniensis' (see Hybrid cultivars).

U. wallichiana is grown in several arboreta in the UK, but by far the largest number is held by Brighton & Hove City Council, the NCCPG elm collection holder, which has some 60 specimens, including the TROBI Champion in school grounds at Rottingdean. The tree tends to be rather short-boled in Brighton & Hove, and readily defoliates in times of drought.

In North America, the species is represented only by two specimens at the U.S. National Arboretum, Washington D. C..

There are no known cultivars of this taxon, nor is it known to be in commerce.