Ulmus Minor - Subspecies and Varieties

Subspecies and Varieties

• Ulmus minor subsp. angustifolia - Cornish Elm
• Ulmus minor subsp. minor - Smooth-leaved Elm, Narrow-leaved Elm
• Ulmus minor var. plotii - Plot's Elm, Lock Elm
• Ulmus minor subsp. sarniensis - Guernsey Elm, Jersey Elm, Southampton Elm, Wheatley Elm

The name Ulmus minor subsp. minor was used by R. H. Richens for Field Elm that was not English Elm, Cornish Elm, Lock Elm or Guernsey Elm. Many publications, however, continue to use plain Ulmus minor for Richens's Ulmus minor subsp. minor. Richens noted in 1983 that other varieties of Field Elm are distinguishable on the European mainland. Of these, he listed the small-leaved U. minor of France and Spain; the narrow-leaved U. minor of northern and central Italy; the densely-hairy leaved U. minor of southern Italy and Greece; the U. minor with small-toothed leaves from the Balkans; the U. minor with large-toothed leaves from the Danube region; and the small-leaved U. minor from southern Russia and the Ukraine. As for the English varieties, "the continental populations most closely related are in central Europe". He concluded, however, that owing to incomplete field-research at the time of writing, it was "not possible to present an overall breakdown of the European Field Elm into regional varieties".

A form of U. minor not uncommon in central Europe, and considered sufficiently distinct by some continental botanists to be recognised as a variety, is the so-called korkulme (Germany), korkelm (Denmark), or wiąz korkowa (Poland) - U. minor var. suberosa, the 'Cork-barked elm' of A. Henry, who says it "appears to be a common variety in the forests of central Europe". Elwes and Henry, having seen specimens in Slavonia, Croatia, and in Gisselfelde, Denmark, as well as at Kew, describe it as having "branchlets of the second to the tenth year furnished with corky wings", but with "leaves and samarae as in the type". W. J. Bean reports it "to be often rather dwarf and to occur in dry habitats". A fine specimen so labelled, with thick corky branchlets giving a dense winter silhouette, stands in the Botanic Gardens of Visby in Gotland, Sweden, and others are found in the University of Copenhagen Arboretum and in the Alexandru Buia Botanic Garden in the University of Craiova, Rumania. R. H. Richens, however, regarded the tree as undifferentiated U. minor, not distinct enough to merit varietal status, and the name a relic of taxonomic conservatism.

• "U. minor var. suberosa" Kamień Pomorski, Poland

• "U. minor var. suberosa" Branchlet, Białowieża forest, Poland

• "U. minor var. suberosa" Białowieża forest, Poland