AI overview
Ulmus minor is a species of elm tree native to Europe and western Asia that has historically been an important shade and timber tree in human settlements. It matters because it has cultural and ecological significance across its native range, though like other elms it has faced serious threats from Dutch elm disease.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Species
Data DeficientField Elm
SPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderRosales
- FamilyUlmaceae
Native toAlbania, Algeria, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Cyprus, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark
Observations25,870
Common Name: Cornish elm
via GBIF · IUCN · Kew POWO
Wikidata facts
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Article
Ulmus minor Mill., the field elm, is by far the most polymorphic of the European species, although its taxonomy remains a matter of contention. Its natural range is predominantly south European, extending to Asia Minor and Iran; its northern outposts are the Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland, although it may have been introduced by humans. The tree's typical habitat is low-lying forest along the main rivers, growing in association with oak and ash, where it tolerates summer floods as well as droughts.
Current treatment of the species owes much to Richens, who noted (1983) that several varieties of field elm are distinguishable on the European mainland. Of these, he listed the small-leaved U. minor of France and Spain; the narrow-leaved U. minor of northern and central Italy; the densely hairy leaved U. minor of southern Italy and Greece; the U. minor with small-toothed leaves from the Balkans; the U. minor with large-toothed leaves from the Danube region; and the small-leaved U. minor from southern Russia and Ukraine. As for British varieties, "the continental populations most closely related [to eastern English Field Elm] are in central Europe", while south-western forms were introduced from France. He concluded, however, that owing to incomplete field-research at the time of writing, it was "not possible to present an overall breakdown of the European Field Elm into regional varieties". The epithet 'red' elm was commonly used by British foresters, an allusion to the colour of the timber.