Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Rosales > Ulmaceae > Ulmus > Ulmus americana

Ulmus americana (American elm)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Ulmus americana, generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species native to eastern North America, occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Florida and central Texas. The American elm is an extremely hardy tree that can withstand winter temperatures as low as −42 °C (−44 °F). Trees in areas unaffected by Dutch elm disease can live for several hundred years. A prime example of the species was the Sauble Elm, which grew beside the banks of the Sauble River in Ontario, Canada, to a height of 43 m (140 ft), with a d.b.h of 196 cm (6.43 ft) before succumbing to Dutch elm disease; when it was felled in 1968, a tree-ring count established that it had germinated in 1701.
View Wikipedia Record: Ulmus americana

Infraspecies

Ulmus americana var. americana
Ulmus americana var. aurea

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Ulmus americana

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Carbon Capture [1]  High
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  86 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  High
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium-High
Bloom Period [2]  Early Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  80 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Spring
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Janka Hardness [4]  830 lbf (376 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  3.51 feet (107 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Rapid
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  70900 / lb (156308 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.5
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  A fibre obtained from the stems is used in making paper; The stems are harvested in spring, the leaves are removed and the stems steamed until the fibres can be stripped. The outer bark is removed from the inner bark by scraping or peeling. The fibres are cooked for 2 hours with lye and then beaten with mallets. The paper is beige in colour; The inner bark is very fibrous and is used in making string and strong ropes; The bark has been used to make various containers, including those used for gathering maple syrup; Wood - hard, strong, heavy, durable, coarse grained, shrinks moderately though it tends to warp and twist, it bends well and is difficult to split. The wood is very durable in water. It weighs 40lb per cubic foot and is harvested commercially for flooring, wheel hubs, cooperage, agricultural implements and many other uses;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Flower Color [2]  Green
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  82 feet (25 m)
Width [3]  82 feet (25 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Ulmus americana

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Emblem of

Massachusetts
North Dakota

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Range Map

+−
Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 11Sciurus griseus, Leslie N. Carraway and B. J. Verts, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 474, pp. 1-7 (1994)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0