Ulmus aff. 'Plotii'
| Ulmus aff. 'Plotii' | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genus | Ulmus |
| Cultivar | Ulmus aff. 'Plotii' |
| Origin | Europe |
Ulmus aff. 'Plotii', or 'pseudo-Plotii', was the name first used by Melville in the 1940s for elms in England, of various genotypes, that resemble but do not completely match the 'type'-tree, U. minor 'Plotii'.[3] It was taken up again following Dr Max Coleman's findings about Plot Elm (2000)[4] and his paper on British elms (2002).[5]
Melville's brief description, at the end of a paragraph on Plot Elm in a 1948 paper, of "a second small-leaved elm, as yet unnamed, found in the lower Thames Valley and East Anglia", that "shares some of the curious features of the Plot Elm but lacks its graceful habit",[6] may be a reference to his aff. 'Plotii'.
Plot-like field elms have also been observed in U. minor fringe areas outside England.[2][1]
Description[edit]
Elms of the aff. 'Plotii' group "are very close to Plot Elm and have a number of characteristics of the 'type', but their crowns are too broad and regular to match 'true Plot'."[7] They are characterised by some or all of the following diagnostic features: a mature crown of unilateral habit; short shoots that produce more than five leaves in a flush; subequal cordate leaf base; and red club-shaped glandular hairs on leaf surface.
Pests and diseases[edit]
The trees are susceptible to Dutch elm disease, but as they produce abundant root-suckers immature specimens probably survive in their areas of origin.
Cultivation[edit]
A few Plot-like field elms have entered cultivation (see Accessions below).
Two trees formerly labelled U. minor subsp. minor × U. minor var. lockii, and referred to in Coleman (2000) as 'pseudo-Plotii',[4] that stand (2016) in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, have been re-classified on the RBGE database as U. minor 'Umbraculifera Gracilis'.[8] An elm cultivar of the same clone and similar age, also formerly known as U. aff. 'Plotii',[7] stands on Whitehouse Loan, Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh.[9]
Hybrids[edit]
This group of elms is likely to hybridize in the wild both with wych elm and with U. minor.
Accessions[edit]
- Wakehurst Place Garden, Wakehurst Place, UK, as U. plotii. Acc. no. 1977–6692 (ex. Tedstone de la Mere SO692587. Melville ref. 7677), collected by Melville.[11][4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Johansson, K. (1924). "Om vära almar" [About our elms] (PDF). Lustgården. 5: 62. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ a b Johansson, K. (1921). "Bidrag till kännedom om Gottlands Ulmus-former" [Contribution to knowledge of Gottland's Ulmus forms]. Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift. 15 (1): 9. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
- ^ "Herbarium specimen - L.4214727". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Specimen labelled Ulmus aff. plotii by Melville (Newport, Essex, 1949); "Herbarium specimen - L.4213929". Botany catalogues. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Specimen labelled Ulmus aff. plotii by Melville (Ware, Hertfordshire, 1949)
- ^ a b c Coleman, M.; Hollingsworth, M. L. & Hollingsworth, P. M. (2000). "Application of RAPDs to the critical taxonomy of the English endemic elm Ulmus plotii Druce". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 133 (3): 241–262. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2000.tb01545.x.
- ^ Coleman, Max (2002). "British elms". British Wildlife. 13 (6): 390–395.
- ^ Melville, Ronald, 'The British Elms', The New Naturalist, Collins, London, 1948, p.40
- ^ a b Coleman's description, in correspondence, 2013.
- ^ "Former aff. 'Plotii', RBGE".
- ^ "Former aff. 'Plotii', Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh".
- ^ bioportal.naturalis.nl, specimen L.3185175
- ^ Detailed results from Living collection for ulmus plotii: ePIC - Detailed results from Living collection for ulmus plotii, accessdate: July 29, 2016
