Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera'

The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera' [:shade-giving] was originally cultivated in Iran, where it was widely planted as an ornamental and occasionally grew to a great size, being known there as 'Nalband' Persian: نعلبند‎ [:the tree of the farriers][1] ("the famous 'Smithy elm' of Persia, where its dense top often forms the shelter of the native forgers"[2]). Litvinov considered it a cultivar of a wild elm with a dense crown that he called U. densa, from the mountains of Turkestan, Ferghana, and Aksu.[3] Non-rounded forms of 'Umbraculifera' are also found in Isfahan Province, Iran.[4] Zielińksi in Flora Iranica considered it an U. minor cultivar.[5]

Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera'
'Umbraculifera', Netherlands.
SpeciesUlmus minor
Cultivar'Umbraculifera'
OriginIran

'Umbraculifera' was introduced to Europe in 1878 by the Späth nursery of Berlin, by one account from a German gardener in the employ of the Shah of Persia,[3] by another from M. Scharrer, inspector of Tiflis Imperial Gardens, Georgia.[6][7][8] It was subsequently planted along streets in Berlin.[3] Späth, along with Hesse of Weener, marketed the tree till the 1930s.[9][10][11][12]

'Umbraculifera' was introduced to the United States in 1912 as "Karagatch" (Ulmus densa syn. U. campestris [:U. minor] 'Umbraculifera') at the USDA's Chico Plant Introduction Station in California by Frank Meyer, who collected it from the Russian imperial estate at Murgrab, Turkestan (see photo taken by Meyer in 'Notable trees' below).[13]

Green mistook Späth's U. turkestanica Regel (the U. 'Turkestanica' of his Register of Cultivars[14]) for a synonym of 'Umbraculifera'.[14] Späth listed U. turkestanica Regel and U. campestris umbraculifera separately in his catalogues, where 'Umbraculifera' appears as "Ball elm. Transcaucasia, Persia. Needs no pruning. Valuable as a single tree, free-standing in park or street".[15][16][17][9]

Description

The tree is distinguished by its dense, rounded, sometimes flat-topped habit.[18][19][20] Henry's statement (1913) that "it differs from ordinary U. nitens [: U. minor] only in its peculiar habit"[3] suggests that, in one form of the tree at least, the leaf is not distinctive. A leaf-specimen labelled U. umbraculifera held in the herbarium of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle appears to confirm this suggestion.[21] However, a leaf-specimen labelled U. umbraculifera Späth held in the herbarium of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden shows that the clone marketed by the Späth nursery had a distinctive, almost rhomboidal leaf.[22] The tree is reputedly always grafted on to U. minor standards.[3] An early 20th-century photograph in Schedae ad Herbarium florae URSS (1922), shows that 'Umbraculifera' ('Bubyriana') is not dissimilar in appearance to its putative hybrid Ulmus 'Androssowii'.[23]

Pests and diseases

The tree is as vulnerable to Dutch elm disease as the species.

Cultivation

The tree was introduced to the Caucasus, Armenia and Turkestan,[3] and it remains in cultivation in central and south-west Asia.[4] Bean remarked that the tree succeeded well on the continent (Europe) and in eastern North America,[24] but was rarely planted in the UK.[25] Henry (1913) mentions an example at Kew Gardens, obtained in 1904 from Simon-Louis of Metz, France.[3] A specimen stood in the Ryston Hall arboretum, Norfolk,[26] in the early 20th century.[27] Introduced to Australia, the tree was marketed in the early 20th century by the Gembrook Nursery near Melbourne,[28] and by Searl's Garden Emporium, Sydney, but it is not known whether the tree survives in that country. Despite its susceptibility to Dutch elm disease, it remains in commercial cultivation in Belgium and the Netherlands.

  • 'Umbraculifera', Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts, c.1900
  • 'Umbraculifera' avenue near the Späth nursery, Berlin, 1903
  • 'Umbraculifera' in Germany, 1912
  • 'Umbraculifera' in Margilan, Uzbekistan
  • 'Umbraculifera', Puertollano Botanical Gardens, November

Putative specimens in Budapest

A field elm cultivar in the People's Park, Budapest, in the early 20th century, presumably grafted at ground level and trained to a neat cone, illustrated in Möller's Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung (1918) as Ulmus campestris als Pyramidenbaum [:field elm as pyramidal tree], may have been trimmed 'Umbraculifera'.[29]

  • Trimmed field elm in Budapest, c.1917

Varieties

The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera Gracilis' was obtained as a sport of 'Umbraculifera' by Späth c.1897-8.[3]

Notable trees

Regel's Gartenflora (1881) contains an illustration, mentioned by Elwes and Henry in their account of 'Umbraculifera', of a great old tree near Eriwan. An avenue of dense globose trees, considered 'Umbraculifera' by Meyer at a time when the hybrid 'Androssowii' determination was unknown, once grew at the Russian imperial estate of Murgrab at Bairam-ali near Merv, formerly Russian Turkestan.[30]

Synonymy

  • Karagatch, also applied to Central Asian field elms generally and to the hybrid cultivar Ulmus 'Karagatch'
  • Narwan: The common name for 'elm' in Persian, nār-van [:elm-tree], confusingly similar to the local name for the pomegranate, anār-van [:pomegranate-tree]. In Tehran, Umbraculifera is called nārvan-e čatrī [:canopy-like elm].[4]
  • Ulmus densa var. nalband Talibov[32]
  • Ulmus densa var. bubyriana: Litv., Schedae ad Herbarium Florae Rossicae 6: 163, no. 1991, t.1, 2, 1908 and Schedae ad Herbarium Florae Rossicae 8: 23, no. 2444, t. 2, 1922 resp. In the latter, Litvinov described it from a cultivated tree in Samarkand.[14]

Hybrid cultivars

Accessions

Europe
  • Hortus Botanicus Nationalis, Salaspils, Latvia. Acc. no. 18147

North America

Nurseries

Europe
  • Boomwekerijen 'De Batterijen', Ochten, Netherlands. .
  • Kwekerij Johan Van Herreweghe , Schellebelle, Belgium.
  • Jacobs Plantencentrum , Venlo, Netherlands.
  • Kwekerij De Reebock , Zwalm, Belgium.
  • Tuincentrum Semperflorens , Roosendaal, Netherlands.
  • Tuincentrum Vechtweelde , Maarssen, Netherlands.

References
  1. "Die grosse Herbstausstellung des Vereins zur Beförderung des Gartenbaues in der Flora zu Charlottenburg". Monatsschrift des Vereines zur Beförderung des Gartenbaues in den Königl. Preussischen Staaten für Gärtnerei und Pflanzenkunde. 21: 515. 1878.
  2. Descriptive Catalogue of Shady Hill Nursery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1893, p.3
  3. Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. 7. p. 1893.
  4. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Elm', (6): iranicaonline.org/articles/elm
  5. J. Zielińksi, 'Ulmaceae', Flora Iranica, ed. K. H. Rechinger (Graz, 1979)
  6. "Nouveaux arbres d'ornament". La Belgique Horticole. 29: 269. 1879.
  7. "Beachtenswerte neue einführungen". Hamburger Garten- und Blumenzeitung. 35: 2–3. 1879.
  8. "Notes". Garden and Forest. 2: 516. 1889.
  9. Katalog (PDF). 108. Berlin, Germany: L. Späth Baumschulenweg. 1902–1903. pp. 132–133.
  10. Späth, Ludwig (1930). Späth-Buch, 1720-1930. Berlin: Self published. pp. 311–313, 351–352.
  11. Hesse, Hermann Albert (1932). Preis- und Sortenliste. pp. 96–97. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  12. Hesse, Hermann Albert (1933). Preis- und Sortenliste. pp. 91–92. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  13. Meyer, F. N. (1912). Seeds and plants imported during the period from January 1 to March 31, 1912: Inventory No.30, Nos 32829–32831. Bureau of Plant Industry - Bulletin No. 282. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1913.
  14. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  15. Späth, L., Catalogue 79 (1890-91; Berlin), p.114
  16. Späth, L., Catalogue 89 (1892-93; Berlin), p.116
  17. Späth, L., Catalogue 104 (1899–1900; Berlin), p.134
  18. Photograph of 'Umbraculifera', arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu, 1941, p.74
  19. Wyman, Donald (1951). "Elms grown in America" (PDF). Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 11 (12): 87. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  20. Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera' photographs, Michigan State University Plant Encyclopedia
  21. Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (France). Collection: Vascular plants (P). Specimen P06880335
  22. "Herbarium specimen - L.1590678". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
  23. Schedae ad Herbarium Florae Rossicae, 8: 23, no. 2445, t.2, 1922
  24. 'Umbraculifera' in Missouri Botanical Garden; Beilmann. A. P., 'Some Ornamental Elms', Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin, Vol.32, No.4, April 1944; p.70
  25. Bean, W. J. (1981). Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain, 7th edition. Murray, London.
  26. rystonhall.co.uk/
  27. Ryston Hall Arboretum catalogue. c. 1920. pp. 13–14.
  28. Gembrook or Nobelius Nursery, Melbourne, 1918 catalogue
  29. Möller, Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung, 20 February 1918
  30. "Ulmus densa (U. campestris umbraculifera)". Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions. 78: 10. 1912.
  31. "C. Die grosse Ulme unweit Eriwan". Gartenflora. 30: 3. 1881.
  32. Photo of Ulmus densa var. nalband, plantarium.ru, image 511290
  33. Washington Park Arboretum, depts.washington.edu
  34. J. C. Raulston Arboretum, Friends of the Arboretum Newsletter, Number 22, August 1991, item 25; jcra.ncsu.edu
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