Ulmus minor 'Rueppellii' is aField Elmcultivar said to have been introduced to Europe fromTashkent by theSpäth nursery,Berlin.[2][3] Noted in 1881 as a 'new elm',[4] it was listed in Späth Catalogue 73, p. 124, 1888–89, and in subsequent catalogues, asUlmus campestris Rueppelli, and later byKrüssmann[5] as a cultivar.[6]
'Rueppellii' was a pyramidal tree with a single stem and numerous ascending branches forming a globose or ovoid crown, much like'Umbraculifera'.[7] The branches are slightly corky, and the branchlets pubescent, bearing small leaves similar to those of theCornish Elm,[8] measuring 6–7 cm (2.4–2.8 in) long by 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in) wide,[9] the surface likened to that of the wych elmU. glabra.[10]
No specimens are known to survive. Three specimens supplied by theSpäth nursery to theRoyal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1902 asU. campestris 'Rueppelli' may survive in Edinburgh, as it was the practice of the Garden to distribute trees about the city (viz. theWentworth Elm).[12] The current list of Living Accessions held in the Gardenper se does not list the plant.[13] Two specimens were grown atKew Gardens before theFirst World War, obtained from the Barbier nursery,France.[8] A specimen obtained from Späth before 1914, and planted in that year, stood in theRyston Hall arboretum,Norfolk,[14] in the early 20th century.[15] 'Rueppelli' was used in urban plantings inBydgoszcz, Poland, in the 1920s.[11] It was marketed by the Hesse Nursery ofWeener, Germany, and by Dahs, Reuter & Co. ofCologne, in the 1930s.[16][17]
In North America, one tree was planted asU. campestris 'Rueppelli' in 1897 at theDominion Arboretum,Ottawa, Canada.[18] In the US,Ulmus Rueppelli, 'Rueppell's English Elm' (an error probably arising from the equating ofU. campestris withEnglish Elm), a "handsome compact form, growing perfectly symmetrical without pruning", appeared in the 1902 catalogue of the Bobbink and Atkins nursery,Rutherford, New Jersey.[19]
In Edinburgh, an unidentified suckering Field Elm cultivar found in Links Place,Leith Links (2016), matches the description, leaf-drawing and herbarium specimen of 'Rueppellii',[20] and may be one of Späth's three. Similar elms also appear in old photographs of Tashkent.[21][22]
Uncertain; the tree is probably named either for Julius Rüppell, owner of the Peter Smith & Co nursery inHamburg during the latter part of the 19th century,[4] or for the naturalist and explorerEduard Rüppell.[10]
^abPaństwowy instytut naukowo-rolniczy (1926).Prace. 1-12. Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) Poland: Pánstwowy instytut naukowo-rolniczy. Wydzial chorób róslin. p. 42. Retrieved13 June 2017.
^Accessions book. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 1902. pp. 45, 47.
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