Ulmus villosa, the cherry-bark elm or Marn elm, is one of the more distinctive Asiatic elms, and a species capable of remarkable longevity. It is endemic to the valleys of the Kashmir at altitudes of NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) but has become increasingly rare owing to its popularity as cattle fodder. Mature trees are now largely restricted to temples and shrines where they are treated as sacred.[1] Some of these trees are believed to be over 800 years old.[2]
Growing up to 25m (82feet) high, the tree is rather lightly and pendulously branched, the bark smooth with distinctive horizontal bands of lenticels, although it eventually becomes very coarsely furrowed.[3] The oblong-elliptic-acute leaves are less than 11cm (04inches) long by 5cm (02inches) broad. The wind-pollinated apetalous flowers appear in spring, and are particularly densely clustered, the white hairs covering the perianth and ovary contrasting with the purplish anthers. The samarae are elliptic, less than 12mm long and densely hairy on both sides.[4] [5] [6]
U. villosa has a low susceptibility to Dutch elm disease and the elm leaf beetle (Xanthogaleruca luteola), but a moderate susceptibility to elm yellows.[7]
A tree once grown at Kew Gardens, London, attained a height of 25m (82feet) and was considered very elegant, although it tended to shed shoots after flowering heavily; it was felled after succumbing to Dutch elm disease. Two trees planted as part of the UK Forestry Commission's elm trials at the Westonbirt Arboretum in the 1970s also died, although the cause of death has not been recorded. The tree was propagated and marketed by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire from 1971 to 1977, with sales totalling 38.[8] [9]
Plantings elsewhere in Europe are few and far between. A line of more than 20 trees survives at Wageningen in the Netherlands, collected by Heybroek in the Himalayas in 1960. Several trees also survive in the Gijsbrecht-Amstelpark area of Amsterdam and in the port.
In the UK, the Tree Register (TROBI) champions are at Bute Park, Cardiff, 21m (69feet) × 45cm (18inches) diameter at breast height (dbh) in 2005, and two at Brighton, both 15m (49feet) × 65cm (26inches) dbh in 2009. The specimen planted in 1989 at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens at an exposed location on clay has grown more in width than height to form an amorphous (albeit healthy) mound of vegetation; in 2005 it was 11.6m (38.1feet) × 38cm (15inches) dbh.