Ulmus minor 'Viminalis Gracilis'


The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Viminalis Gracilis' is a form of U. minor 'Viminalis'. Cultivars listed as Ulmus gracilis Hort. by Kirchner, and as U. scabra viminalis gracilis Hort. by Dieck, were considered by Green to be forms of Melville's U. × viminalis. A 1929 herbarium specimen held at the Hortus Botanicus Leiden is labelled U. campestris var. viminalis f. gracilis, implying a cultivar that differed from the 'type' tree.

Description

The epithet 'gracilis' usually refers to the slender habit of a cultivar. Dippel, who treated the 'Viminalis' group as a form of U. montana, described viminalis f. gracilis as a small to medium-sized tree, with even finer, more hanging branches than type-'Viminalis', and smaller, narrower, almost slit-edged leaves. The Leiden herbarium specimen shows a leaf apparently distinct from that of the type, with narrower, almost hair-like, scarcely double teeth.

Pests and diseases

Trees of the U. minor 'Viminalis' group are very susceptible to Dutch elm disease.

Cultivation

No specimens are known to survive.