Ulmus of King & Co

Ulmus of King & Co nursery, Rayne, or King & Co.'s elm is an elm grown from cuttings taken in the early 1990s from four [1] old trees surviving near Braintree, Essex, England, amidst others afflicted by Dutch elm disease (DED).[2] The variety, released in 2010, is described by the nursery that marketed it as "English elm".[1][3] A 2010 genetic test on it referred to it as "English Elm (U. procera)".[4] At Kew it is listed as U. minor Mill., without a cultivar name.[5]

Ulmus of King & Co
GenusUlmus
OriginEssex, England

The Braintree area falls within what R. H. Richens called the Essex hybridization zone, in which, as well as the English Elm clone, elms of mixed origin are present, and variable field elm.[6][7] The proprietor of the nursery, who in collaboration with the local tree officer took cuttings, bred 2000 trees via micropropagation.[1]

The variety has been sold as a form of "English elm" with a "high resistance" to DED, covered in the national press and BBC, exhibited by the Royal Horticultural Society, and donated to and accessioned by Kew Gardens.

Description

No nursery description of the source trees is available. BBC Essex described the tree as "a smooth-leaved elm",[8] formerly a common name for Ulmus minor subsp. minor now sunk as simply Ulmus minor, the field elm.

Pests and diseases

All 11 specimens inoculated with the DED pathogen by Dr Jelle Hiemstra, Wageningen University, in the 2015 Noordplant trials in the Netherlands, died rapidly.[9] A degree of 'field resistance' has been noted in a small number of old field elms in areas of high infectivity.[10][11][12] The source trees were reported still in full leaf in 2016.[1]

Cultivation

The variety is only sold in the United Kingdom. Three specimens were donated in 2010 by King and Co to Kew Gardens.[13] The tree was exhibited by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2011.[1] The original batch of two thousand saplings was reported sold by 2017.[1]

References
  1. King & Co. "Elm trees (Ulmus species)". King and Co The Tree Nursery Ltd. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  2. "New British tree 'resistant to Dutch Elm Disease'". The Telegraph. London. 2010-06-07. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  3. Milmo, Cahal (2010-06-08). "Has a cure been found for Dutch Elm Disease?". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  4. 'Genotyping of seven English Elm (Ulmus procera) samples for Mr Paul King of King and Co The Tree Company Limited'. Operator(s): Felicidad Fernández & Laima Antanaviciute
  5. Kew Accessions: 2010 Nos. 99, 100, 102, [1089, 1841, 2297]
  6. Richens, R. H. (1983). Elm. Cambridge University Press; p.244
  7. Hanson, M. W. (1990). Essex elm. London: Essex Field Club. ISBN 978-0-905637-15-0. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  8. "Dutch elm disease resistant trees nurtured in Rayne". BBC. London. 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  9. Brookes, A. H. (2017). Great Fontley Elm Trial, 2017 Report. Butterfly Conservation, Lulworth, England.
  10. Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside (London 1986), p.241
  11. Screening European Elms for resistance to 'Ophiostoma novo-ulmi' , RESGEN European Research Project CEMAGREF (Forest Science 2005)
  12. Gunner, Alec (2016-06-09). "East Anglian Elms - An assessment of characteristics of surviving trees". The 2016 International Elm Conference by The Conservation Foundation. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  13. Kew Accessions: 2010 Nos. 99, 100, 102, [1089, 1841, 2297], donated by Mr Paul King
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