| Ulmus minor 'Coritana' | |
|---|---|
 Ulmus minor 'Coritana', drawing by Melville, 1949 of a tree (ref 46.31),1⁄4 mile west ofErmine Street on the Tadlow Road, Cambridgeshire.[1] | |
| Species | Ulmus minor |
| Cultivar | 'Coritana' |
| Origin | England |
TheField ElmcultivarUlmus minor 'Coritana' was originally claimed byMelville, while he was searching in the neighbourhood ofLeicestershire in 1936 forU. elegantissima, as a new species, which he calledU. coritana. He later recorded its distribution in the counties ofBedfordshire,Berkshire,Buckinghamshire,Cambridgeshire,Essex,Hertfordshire,Leicestershire,Nottinghamshire,Norfolk,Oxfordshire,Suffolk andWarwickshire.[1]Richens, however, dismissedU. coritana as 'an artificial aggregate' of local forms of Field Elm.[2][3]Bean noted (1988) that Melville'sU. coritana was not recognised in theFlora of the British Isles as a species distinct fromU. carpinifolia [:U. minor].[4][5]
By the proposed rule that known or suspected clones ofU. minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, the tree would be designatedU. minor 'Coritana'.[6]
Described as a rather spreading tree less than 20 m (66 ft) high, with ascending branches and rather open crown. Melville identified three varieties ofU. coritana:var. rotundifolia,[7][8]var. media[9] andvar. angustifolia,[10] the three being connected by intermediate forms whose leaves decreased in breadth and increased in asymmetry from south to north. "The species was distinctive," summarizedGerald Wilkinson, "not by its spreading, open crown, but by the bright green, leathery texture and marked asymmetry of its leaves."[11] Melville described the leaves as "the most asymmetrical of any British elm" and included a drawing of them in his 1946 paper, 'The British Elms', inThe New Naturalist.[12]
A 2007 study of the elms ofCounty Cork, Ireland, identified a number of introduced field elms there (aside from the knownCornish elms) as closest to Melville's 'Coritana',[13] on account of the leaf's curved midrib and petiole and other diagnostic features.[14]
Melville namedU. coritana after the ancient British tribe, theCoritani, who had occupied part of the territory in which he found the elm.[15]
Like other members of theU. minor group, Melville's 'Coritana' are susceptible toDutch elm disease, but as they produce abundant root-suckers immature specimens probably survive in their areas of origin.
Specimens held by theRoyal Botanic Gardens at Kew andWakehurst Place were listed under the species nameU. coritana.
Melville considered that both 'Hunnybunii' and 'Sowerbyi' were hybrids of 'Coritana'.[1] He also believed that an elm he calledUlmus × diversifolia had 'Coritana' in its parentage.[16] Kew and Wakehurst Place lists include putative hybrids between 'Coritana' and other forms ofU. minor, and between 'Coritana' andUlmus glabra.