Ulmus 'Argenteo-Marginata'

The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Argenteo-Marginata' was first mentioned by Deegen in Deutsches Magazin für Garten- und Blumenkund (1879),[1] as Ulmus campestris elegans foliis argenteo-marginatis. An U. campestris fol. argenteo-marginata Hort. (later just U. campestris argenteo-marginata) was distributed by the Späth nursery, Berlin, from the 1890s to the 1930s.[2][3]

Ulmus 'Argenteo-Marginata'
Genus	Ulmus
Cultivar	'Argenteo-Marginata'
Origin	Germany

Green considered the tree possibly a cultivar of Field Elm or of U. × hollandica.

Description

Deegen described the tree as having leaves bordered with white. The leaves were described in a later reference as also being very rough above, weakly pubescent below, and measuring < 8 cm long by < 4 cm broad.[4] Späth catalogues likewise describe white-bordered leaves.[2][3]

Cultivation

No specimens are known to survive, unless the tree is synonymous with one of two cultivars with sometimes silver-white margined leaves, U. minor 'Argenteo-Variegata' or the rough-leafed U. minor 'Atinia Variegata',[5] both of which match the microphylla foliis marginatis description (Synonymy below). One tree was planted in 1897 as U. campestris fol. argenteis marginatis at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Canada.[6] Three specimens supplied by the Späth nursery, Berlin, to the RBGE in 1902 as U. campestris fol. argenteo-marginata may survive in Edinburgh, as it was the practice of the Garden to distribute trees about the city (viz. the Wentworth Elm);[7] the current list of Living Accessions held in the Garden per se does not list the plant.[8]

Synonymy

• Ulmus campestris var. microphylla foliis marginatis: Hartwig & Rümpler, Illustrirtes Gehölzbuch 391, 1892.
• Ulmus campestris var. nuda subvar. foliis marginatis: Wesmael , Bulletin de la Fédération des sociétés d'horticulture de Belgique 1862: 389, 1863.

References

1. Deutsches Magazin für Garten- und Blumenkund, 60, 1879
2. Katalog (PDF). 108. Berlin, Germany: L. Späth Baumschulenweg. 1902–1903. pp. 132–133.
3. Späth, Ludwig (1930). Späth-Buch, 1720-1930. Berlin: Self published. pp. 311–313, 351–352.
4. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017. Späth's catalogues likewise describe leaves bordered with white.
5. Photograph of white-margined English Elm leaves in Gerald Wilkinson, Epitaph for the Elm, Hutchinson, London 1978, p.67 (ISBN 0099212803 / 0-09-921280-3)
6. Saunders, William; Macoun, William Tyrrell (1899). Catalogue of the trees and shrubs in the arboretum and botanic gardens at the central experimental farm (2 ed.). pp. 74–75.
7. Accessions book. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 1902. pp. 45, 47.
8. "List of Living Accessions: Ulmus". Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 21 September 2016.