| Ulmus americana 'Pendula' | |
|---|---|
| Species | Ulmus americana |
| Cultivar | 'Pendula' |
| Origin | England |
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TheAmerican elmcultivarUlmus americana 'Pendula' was originally listed byWilliam Aiton inHort. Kew, 1: 320, 1789, asU. americana var.pendula, cloned in England in 1752 byJames Gordon.[1][2] From the 1880s theSpäth nursery of Berlin supplied a cultivar at first listed asUlmus fulva (Michx.)pendulaHort.,[3][4] which in their 1899 catalogue was queried as a possible variety ofU. americana,[5] and which thereafter appeared in their early 20th-century catalogues asU. americana pendula (formerlyUlmus fulva (Michx.)pendulaHort.).[6][7][8] The Scampston Elm,Ulmus ×hollandica 'Scampstoniensis', in cultivation on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th and 20th centuries, was occasionally referred to as 'American Weeping Elm' orUlmus americana pendula.[9][10] This cultivar, however, was distinguished by Späth from hisUlmus americana pendula.
'Pendula' was considered probably just aforma byGreen, who stated that it was later confused with a pendulous variant of anUlmus glabra (see 'Synonymy').[2] At least one US nursery, however, stocked a clone. From 1932 to 1934 Plumfield Nurseries ofFremont, Nebraska, marketed, alongside the pyramidalUlmus americana 'Moline' and the non-pendulousUlmus americana 'Vase', an 'American Weeping Elm', "a weeping form of American elm, with long drooping branches".[11][12][13]
The tree was described as vase-shaped with branches pendulous at their extremities.[2]
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TheU. americana pendula planted at theDominion Arboretum,Ottawa, in 1889 may have been Späth's mis-namedUlmus fulva (Mchx)pendula, later corrected in arboretum lists, since Späth supplied many of the 1880s' and 1890s' elms there.[14] Specimens from Späth were in cultivation in Europe, asUlmus fulva (Mchx)pendula in the late 19th century, and asU. americana pendula in the 20th, to the 1930s.[15]Henry (1913) described two atKew obtained from Späth in 1896, considering them "probably not"Ulmus americana 'Beebe's Weeping', an 1889 cultivar which had at first also been mis-calledUlmus fulva (Mchx)pendula.[16] 'Pendula' is known to have been cultivated in the UK (most recently inAyrshire[17]) and the Netherlands; no surviving trees have been confirmed (2016).
A striking low, horizontal-spreading American elm inMorton Arboretum,Illinois (near the main road to the east side), said by the Arboretum not to be 'Beebe's', is labelled as aforma,Ulmus americana f.pendula, reportedly cloned in 1970 from a weeping American elm growing in front of Plymouth Congregational Church, Plainfield, Illinois (see 'Accessions').
A clone cultivated in China asUlmus americana 'Pendula', top-grafted onUlmus pumila stock, is neitherUlmus americana norScampston elm (formerly mis-namedUlmus americana 'Pendula'), but, in the case of the majority of photographs on the Plant Photo Bank of China, a weeping form ofU. glabraHuds., probably'Camperdownii'.[18][19]
'Pendula' was used in the Dutch elm breeding programme beforeWorld War II, but none of the progeny were of particular note and are not known to have been cultivated[20]