The big living Elm search.

[Andy Clark]

Indeed... but hellish difficut to get hold of sometimes - always out measuring trees!

 

Try, [email protected]

[Tom D]

Some are definately more resistant than others: my dad had 2 in his garden, we cut one down (dead) when I was still at school, the other is still there 17 years later, its about 40 foot and multistemmed, prob 1.2M diameter above ground.

[Jon Lad]

Yes you can put the post code or address i don't plan on recording them this is just an Arbtalk search. I just got thinking today how many big Elms are left in this country and will they survive or become extinct. I was at an arboretum earlier in the year and one of the resistant Elms had now got DED.

 

I have read where the ups and downs of elms in this country go back to the Neolithic . There were outbreaks of DED here in the 1830's and 40's and in the 1920's and 30's. However the globalisation of plant diseases may mean that the fungus mutates and becomes a more virulent form which affects elms every few years, rather than every thousand years as it used to.

I can't see elms becoming extinct, hedgerows are full of them, but we may lose nearly all the big elms.

[Mark T]

Cheers Andy. You're not the Andy Clarke from Urb.... no wait, we've been there haven't we?!

[Giles Hill]

Here's a different picture of an enormous smooth leaf near the Stour valley:

 

I posted some other pics of this and some other trees a while back on this thread:

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/3820-elm-porn.html

 

No measurements I'm afraid.

 

There's a pretty large one - too big to get your arms around - in whitehouse park, Ipswich - it's right on the Norwich Road, so you can see it if you head into the town that way.

[Saw-sick Steve]

The following is from my own personal observations, not a peer reviewed scientific study, but my humble opinion -

Elm spreads as much by sucker as seed. Supposedly 'dead' Elms often send up suckers that grow for 20+ yrs before succumbing to disease again. This is long enough to put enough energy back into the plant to enable it to repeat the process again, possibly until either the disease disappears or the tree becomes immune. If the 'dead' stool is removed by, say, a farmer taking the opportunity to enlarge a field or an over zealous Local Authority, then that Elm is lost for good. I've got Elm on some of my hedges that have been through this process at least three times since the original outbreak, and are still sending up vigorous suckers.

Cornish Elm are reputed to be more disease resistant than English, but still eventually succumb. Proximity to the coast may give some protection, as the beetle that carries the disease cant always locate them.There are still many fine specimens down here.

As already mentioned, Dutch Elm (or similar) has struck before and either died out naturally or trees became immune. Given a long enough time scale, I cant see why this wont happen again.

As I've said before, all of this is just my own opinion:thumbup1:

[Heads up]

Brighton has a load- they never got it i think the theory being that the beetle didnt make it over the south downs. I have a feeling they spray or innoculate:confused1:the trees too.

BBC NEWS | England | How Brighton beat Dutch Elm menace

 

Not True in any way im afriad, DED does the rounds on our trees year in year out. Brightons street trees are mainly made up of elms there are also many many elms dotted about. We loose alot of mature elms each year through DED. All though there are stict controls on elm timber it hasn't stopped the spread, The council tree gang spend most of the summer removing elms.

 

BUT

 

There are some stunners down here. if you want to see Elms brightons the place.

[David oakman]

Not looking very good guys and girls. I thought every village and town would have one or two at least. We want lots of photos of these old Elms.

 

The Elms i have been cutting down in a shelter belt are as said suckers from old Elms the stumps are still there, the suckers are about 20 years old but dead and new little suckers are coming up. This is like magic really all these suckers coming up from the original trees root system all little clones of the parent:thumbup:

[Mesterh]

Hope you dont mind me asking this here (not to derail) but does the beetle also live on other trees or is it just elm?

[alliaria]

Hi,

Two large ones in Castle Park, Bristol, i,ll get photos and measurements.

Cheers.