American Elm

[treeguy224]

Ok i have a question.........is the diffenrence between the American Elm and the Siberian Elm the leaf size? Does the american elm have a bigger serrated leaf than the Siberian elm?

 

[tomreeve]

Ulmus pumila, Siberian Elm; LEAVES: 3/4 to 3" long, 1/3 to 1 1/2" wide, acute or acuminate , usually equal at the base, nearly simple serrate, witht he teeth entire or withonly one minute tooth
Ulmus americana, American Elm; LEAVES" 3 to 6" long, 1 to 3" wide, acuminate, unequal at base, doubly serate.
Also the American elm tends to not grow to be very big without suffering from Dutch Elm's disease, whereas the Siberian is quite resistant.

 

[tomreeve]

By the way the info came from Michael A. Dirr's book "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants." It costs a lot but is worht it's weight in gold. ( It weighs about five pounds.)

 

[Cotreewhisperer]

what about chinese elm- whats the species? I have been told that there is a difference between a siberian and a chinese elm. one characteristic i'm told, the bark is slightly knobby like a hackberry. what do you think?

 

[treeguy224]

The chinese elm known as the lace bark elm(Ulmus parvifolia) is very different, it is a smooth barked tree, but the bark looks as if it is peeeling off, sort of an orange color to the bark.

 

[treeman45246]

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:lUFJK-KjnUgJ:www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/nursery

Bark of the lacebark (or Chinese) elm - Ulmus parvifolia

 

[underwor]

Here are leaves of American, Japanese, and Siberian. Image isn't the best, but you get the idea.

http://165.234.175.12/photos/Angiosperms/Elms.jpg