The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Viminalis Gracilis' [:'slender'] is a form of U. minor 'Viminalis'. Cultivars listed as Ulmus gracilis Hort. by Kirchner (1864),[1] and as U. scabra viminalis gracilis Hort. by Dieck (1885),[2] were considered by Green to be forms of Melville's U. × viminalis.[3] A 1929 herbarium specimen held at the Hortus Botanicus Leiden is labelled U. campestris var. viminalis f. gracilis, implying a cultivar that differed from the 'type' tree.[4]
Description
The epithet 'gracilis' usually refers to the slender habit of a cultivar. Dippel (1892), who treated the 'Viminalis' group as a form of U. montana (sometimes used for hybrids in his day), described viminalis f. gracilis as a small to medium-sized tree, with even finer, more hanging branches than type-'Viminalis', and smaller, narrower, almost slit-edged leaves.[5][6] The Leiden herbarium specimen shows a leaf with narrow, almost hair-like, scarcely double teeth.[4] Alfred Rehder wrote (1919), "The form named 'gracilis' has been distinguished from 'Viminalis' by the more deeply incised usually obovate leaves, but the two forms of leaves pass gradually into each other and may be found even on the same plant."[7]
Pests and diseases
Trees of the U. minor 'Viminalis' group are very susceptible to Dutch elm disease.
Cultivation
No specimens are known to survive.
References
- ^ Petzold; Kirchner (1864). Arboretum Muscaviense. p. 551.
- ^ Dieck, Zoschen, Germany, (1885) Haupt-catalog der Obst- und gehölzbaumschulen des ritterguts Zöschen bei Merseburg, p. 82
- ^ Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. 24 (6–8). Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University: 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
- ^ a b "Herbarium specimen - L.1582431". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Sheet labelled U. viminalis gracilis (Leiden specimen)
- ^ Dippel, Leopold, Handbuch der Laubholzkunde, Pt.2 (Berlin, 1892), p.30
- ^ "Herbarium specimen - WAG.1853217". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Sheet labelled U. campestris var. viminalis f. gracilis (Leiden specimen); "Herbarium specimen - L.1582075". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Sheet labelled U. montana Sm. var. viminalis Koch f. gracilis (1901); "Herbarium specimen - E00824784". Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Sheet labelled U. montana Sm. var. viminalis f. gracilis = U. procera f. viminalis [ = U. minor 'Viminalis ]
- ^ Rehder, Alfred (1919). "Rehder, new species, varieties and combinations". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. 1: 140–141. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
This page was last edited on 12 January 2024, at 12:21