Ulmus pumila var. pumila

Siberian Elm

A small tree growing 4-12 m tall and often shrubby with weeping branches. Bark fissured. Buds roundish, blackish brown. Branchlets soon hairless. Leaves mostly 5-7.5 cm long, elliptic to oblanceolate, toothing mostly shallow, sharp and double; smooth above and more or less hairless below; vein pairs 9-12 with hair tufts in the vein axils below but hardly visible to the naked eye. Leaf stalks 3-7(-10) mm long, thin, more or less hairless. Fruit 10-12 mm long and deeply notched with the seed near the centre.

Perhaps the least attractive of the elms but a rapid grower and has been used for erosion control; said to be resistant to Dutch Elm disease.

E Siberia & N China to Turkestan

Relatively small leaves, base hardly oblique.

VIC: St Kilda (St Kilda Botanical Gardens, 12 m tall in 1985; Alma Park west). ACT: Westbourne Woods.

Source: Spencer, R.; Hawker, J.; Lumley, P. (1997). Ulmus. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Rosanae
order      Rosales
family       Ulmaceae
genus        Ulmus L.
species         Ulmus pumila L.