Fifty Common Tref.s of New York 



43 



33. AMERICAN ELM 

 White Elm 



(JJlmus americana Linnaeus) 



American elm is one of the most beautiful, graceful, and best known 

 of our forest trees. It occupies a wide range of sites though typically 

 a tree of the bottomlands, and grows to be one of the largest trees in the 

 State. (The Gowanda elm has a basal circumference of 39 feet.) The 

 wood is heavy, hard, strong, tough, 

 coarse-grained, difficult to split, and 

 light brown in color ; largely used for 

 veneer, barrel staves and hoops, crates 

 and wheel hubs. The graceful sym- 

 metry of the crown makes the elm 

 highly prized for ornamental plant- 

 ing. 



Bark — dark gray in color, divided 

 by irregular up-and-down furrows 

 into broad flat-topped ridges, rather 

 firm or occasionally in old trees flak- 

 ing off ; inner bark in alternate layers 

 of brown and white. 



Twigs — slender, smooth, reddish brown in color 

 when chewed. 



Winter buds — winter twig obviously ends in leaf scar, hence larger 

 bud near end of twig not truly terminal ; lateral buds somewhat smaller, 

 egg-shaped, pointed, light reddish brown in color, smooth, % inch long. 



Leaves — simple, alternate, from 4 to 6 inches long, unequal at the base, 

 margin with coarse saw -like edge ; at maturity dark green in color above, 

 lighter beneath, midrib and parallel veins prominent; upper surface of 

 leaf somewhat rough to the touch, though not so pronounced as in slip- 

 pery elm. 



Fruit — flat, winged, deeply notched at the end, % inch long, contain- 

 ing one small seed ; in clusters, ripens in early May as the leaf buds un- 

 fold, falling soon thereafter. 



AMERICAN ELM 



Twig, one-half natural size ; leaf and 

 fruit, one-half natural size 



not mucilaginous 



