general description
Elms appeared on earth millions of years ago; they can be classified as relict tree species. In the area they are more often found in mixed and deciduous forests and can grow solitary. They love fertile and alkaline soils, tolerate a lack of sunlight well, and are able to create dense shade thanks to their dense crown.
Young elms have light brown, smooth bark; with age it darkens and becomes covered with deep longitudinal furrows, becoming rough and thick. Mature trees of many varieties look powerful, growing up to 40 m in length, and the trunks of some specimens reach a diameter of 2 m. There are also shrub species. Tree roots grow to great depths, and in podzolic soils they branch widely to the sides. Elm leaves are very beautiful: rough or smooth, ranging in size from 4 to 20 cm, rich bright or dark green, three-toothed, pointed towards the edges or oval, lined with relief stripes from the center to the sides, arranged alternately, almost closely on short cuttings. On the branches they form a kind of lace thanks to the relief pattern. The shadow provided by the spreading wide elm crowns is almost not illuminated by the sun. The leaves fade very early, acquiring a red-brown color and falling off in early autumn.
The elm tree blooms and bears fruit in April, even before the leaves appear. Its flowers are dioecious, inconspicuous, collected in small yellowish bunches. The fruits are small nuts surrounded by lionfish. On trees they ripen already with the first onset of warmth - in May. Carried by the wind throughout the area, the fruits fall into the soil and sprout within a few days.
Because of their gnarled, furrowed bark, elms are often susceptible to insect pests and fungi.
Interesting Facts
Elm is an unusual tree; many legends and historical facts are associated with it:
- In Russia they believed that elm branches brought good luck, courage and protection to travelers on long and difficult journeys.
- In Christianity, the tree is sacred. This is a symbol of honor and dignity.
- For many, elm is a symbol of family and motherhood.
- Elm wood was used as supports in the construction of the first London Bridge.
- In Venice there are buildings on elm stilts.
- In Korea, the long-lived elm tree was reported to be about 800 years old. Its height is 7 m, trunk diameter is about 2 m.
- Until 2010, an old elm tree grew in Moscow, which managed to survive the fire of 1812. Due to the unnatural heat, it dried out.
- The tree exudes a pleasant soothing and relaxing aroma.
- In China, wings are added to various salads.
- In the Middle Ages in Europe, water pipes were made from tree trunks.
Elm is a long-lived deciduous tree with a beautiful spreading crown. The wood is valuable, has an unusual pattern, is durable and is used for a variety of purposes. The bark, leaves and roots are used in traditional and folk medicine.
Types of elms
There are about 10 varieties of elm growing in Russia. Almost all of them are long-livers - capable of reaching an age of 250–300 years.
Ordinary
The common, or smooth, elm is widespread throughout the European part, Western Siberia, and the Caucasus. Depending on the fertility of the soil, tree trunks rise from 10 to 25 m, their diameter is up to 1.5 m in old specimens. In urban conditions and on soils poor in nutrition, such elms are much lower and thinner. The bark is dark brown, textured, rough, and may peel off in small scales. The shoots form a wide elliptical crown. The leaves are up to 15 cm long and 10 cm wide, elongated, framed by sickle-shaped teeth. The front side is dark green, the back side is lighter, matte, slightly pubescent. Brown-violet small flowers bloom in April; after 7–12 days, small fruits with membranous lionfish are formed in their place. The common elm grows quite quickly, tolerates pruning well, and creates dense shade. It can be used for landscaping parks, alleys, and local areas.
Squat
Small-leaved, or squat, elm or simply elmovik lives up to its name. Compared to related giants, its maximum height is no more than 15 m, and often forms shrubby forms. Distribution territories: Transbaikalia, Far East. Elmovik has thin branches, leaves are rounded, jagged, unequal at the base, pointed towards the ends. Size - about 4–7 cm. In spring, the foliage of the squat elm is soft green and leathery. In summer it gets dark. The inflorescences are small, yellowish-brown in color. Ilmovik does not like heavily shaded areas, preferring bright places, but it creates quite a thick shadow. It is unpretentious to soil composition and tolerates drought well.
Blade
One of the common Far Eastern species, due to the original shape of its large leaves resembling sharp blades, is often called split. It grows mainly in high mountain areas. The tree trunks reach 25 m in height, the crown is cylindrical and very dense.
Rough
This species prefers fertile soils, does not tolerate highly saline soils, and is found in deciduous forests of Eastern and Western Europe. The trees are straight-trunked, with a fairly smooth dark brown bark, up to 30-40 cm in height. The leaves are very large - about 17-20 cm, ovoid, light green, rough on top, with a hard fleecy surface on the reverse side. The lifespan of the rough elm is up to 400 years.
Breeding and care
Reproduction of smooth elm occurs mainly by seeds, occasionally by shoots from it. Seeds can be stored in a hermetically sealed container for 2 years and not lose their germination. Seeds are sown immediately after ripening within 1-2 weeks. In this case, no preliminary preparation is required. They are sown in rows with a pitch of 20-30 cm, covered with soil and watered abundantly. Elm is unpretentious to conditions and calmly tolerates excess moisture and its lack. Can grow in the shade, but develops better in good light.
In the first weeks after planting, the sown seeds should be watered abundantly, and in hot weather they should be covered with film until the first shoots appear. When planting an elm, you should take into account that it grows quickly and that soon its crown will shade other light-loving plants. It has been noticed that smooth elm has a depressing effect on grapes. In this regard, you should take into account their intolerance to each other and plant them away from each other.
Properties and uses of wood
In terms of density, dry elm wood is close to birch - 550–600 kg/m³. It has a beautiful noble texture with a pronounced natural pattern. The heartwood is light brown, the sapwood is pale yellow. Elm materials are characterized by high hardness, are resistant to rotting and deformation, and have high resistance to impact loads and compression.
Due to its high density, elm is difficult to saw, split and other types of processing, but bends quite well. The smooth surface of the material tolerates polishing well. Fresh timber practically does not crack or warp when dried.
Elm has long been used for the production of bows, wheel rims, rocker arms, and wooden parts of harnesses. Dishes were hollowed out from the massif. In London, Venice and other European cities, bridge supports were turned from elm wood, and it was used in the construction of river dams, locks, and the construction of mines and cellars.
Currently, elm is used more in the form of veneer, which increases artistic value and ennobles lower-quality wood species, or as part of combined materials for interior decoration. Elm materials are used for the production of parquet, wooden frames, panels and handles, baseball bats, furniture parts, blanks and products that require bending.
Origin story
Smooth elm, or common elm, is one of the representatives of the elm genus. This genus of deciduous trees is very ancient, more than 40 million years old. In the wild, all representatives of the genus grow in deciduous forests, sometimes found in spruce forests.
The cultivation of the plant occurred relatively recently, three centuries ago. From that moment on, smooth elm began to be used to decorate park alleys.
It is believed that the Latin name of the elm genus, Úlmus, comes from the Celtic word “elm” - this is how these people called this tree. The Russian word “elm” most likely appeared due to the fact that the wood of the plant is very flexible (viscous).
Growing
Site selection and care
Planting elm is most successful on fertile soils, especially on floodplains. Heavy soils are fertilized with organic matter. Some species tolerate soil salinity and lack of moisture well. Many elms are shade-tolerant, but there are varieties that love sunny places.
The trees are undemanding in care and cultivation and tolerate frosty winters quite well. If the branches of the plant are slightly frozen, they can be easily trimmed in the spring. General recommendations suitable for many species are:
- fertile, well-drained soil;
- good watering at the beginning of summer, later it is reduced, but the soil is not allowed to dry out excessively.
Small elm in the form of bonsai (U. minor)
Trimming
You can prune in autumn and very early spring. Elms grow slowly, so we are talking about rare and weak pruning, or no pruning at all. Varieties suitable for hedges are trimmed from mid-summer as needed. All species require sanitary pruning, in which old and dry branches are removed. When grown for decorative purposes, trees are formed as standard trees, leaving a bare trunk of the desired height. In addition, you can remove branches that are unevenly distributed along the main shoot. Weeping varieties do not form and are not pruned.
Elm and spruce
Cirrus-branched
The second name is pinnately branched elm. It is found naturally in Kazakhstan, the Far East, Central and East Asia. Grows on mountain slopes, pebbles, and sands. Loves a lot of sun. Can live more than 100 years. Height - 15-25 m. The crown is spreading, but does not provide shade.
The small leaves are arranged in 2 rows and give the impression of large feathery leaves, which gives the species its name. The plant is winter-hardy, can withstand drought and adapts to any soil. It grows quickly, but reaches maximum growth only in its natural environment: in the south, on moist soils. Easily withstands urban conditions - asphalting, dust, smog. It lends itself well to pruning and is popular in park construction.
Read also: Blue spruce: propagation by cuttings, planting blue spruce
David's elm is a bush or tree, the height of which is 15 m. The leaves are sharp, ovate, 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The fruit is a yellow-brown lionfish. A well-known variety is the Japanese elm. It is popular in Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
This species has many names - elm, birch bark, karaich, cork elm, red elm, field elm (tree in the photo). Distribution area: Ukraine, Russia, Asia Minor, Western Europe. It lives in deciduous and mixed forests, on river banks and high in the mountains.
The height of the tree ranges from 10 to 30 m. The crown is low. The leaves are oblong, obovate. Life expectancy is up to 400 years. Elm loves sunlit places and easily tolerates drought, but not frost. A distinctive feature is that the tree forms a wide network of surface roots.
This strengthens the topsoil and reduces the risk of erosion. Therefore, field elm is often used not only for urban landscaping, but also for forest protection plantings. Cork growths are often found on branches, which increases the value of wood as a building material.
Application in medicine
Foliage, flowers and elm bark contain: polysaccharides, fiber, protein, oils, catechins, flavonoids, carboxylic acids, tannins. Therefore, the plant has antibacterial, diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and enveloping effects.
Thanks to these properties, elm components are actively used for:
- combating inflammatory processes in the bladder;
- elimination of edema;
- restoration of damaged muscles;
- combating skin diseases;
- eliminating digestive disorders;
- getting rid of colic;
- rapid healing of wounds.
Read also: Anemone (anemone): planting and care in open ground and indoor conditions, photo of flowers
Video: interesting facts about the elm tree
As you can see, elm is a very unpretentious plant, but many years will pass before it begins to delight you with its majestic crown. To achieve this as soon as possible, you must strictly follow the recommendations for planting and care, and also carefully protect the tree from pests.
Smooth elm tree diseases
Often suffers from Dutch elm disease. Its causative agent is the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi. The causative agent of the disease is spread by bark beetles. Most often they damage weaker trees. The tree is damaged due to substances contained in its bark. In the acute form of the disease, the plant dries out completely within a few weeks. Otherwise, it may hurt for several years. Dutch disease can be recognized when branches begin to dry out, as if they had been cut down and left to dry. In the spring, fewer leaves bloom on such damaged branches, or they do not bloom at all. If you remove the bark from the branches, you can see long stripes underneath.
In most cases, once infected with Dutch disease, the tree cannot be saved. Adjacent elms should be injected with a fungicide to prevent disease. To prevent trees from becoming infected from fused roots, they need to be cut off. Most often, Dutch disease spreads in damp places.
Diseases and pests
Smooth elm is an unpretentious tree that is resistant to most diseases. His only enemy, which is almost impossible to cope with, is Dutch disease. It is caused by a fungus that is carried by bark beetles. Once on the plant, the fungus prevents the normal circulation of sap along the trunk and branches.
As a result, the leaves begin to curl and the growth of the plant gradually slows down. Growth disturbance is manifested in untimely appearance and loss of foliage. After a while, the diseased tree dies.
This disease worries botanists in more than one country, since because of it the number of elms is rapidly declining, and there are still no effective methods to combat the disease. If an infected tree is discovered, it must be immediately destroyed along with the pests that carry the fungus.
Another misfortune is the scale insect. This is a tiny insect that looks like a flat bug. It is extremely difficult to notice it on a tree, since at first glance it may seem that the trunk is covered with growths. It is possible to determine that a plant is infected only by the foliage - it is covered with white or yellow spots. A diseased tree should be immediately uprooted and burned.
