Ulmus laevis var. celtidea

Ulmus laevis var. celtidea Rogow. [: like Celtis, the leaves] is a putative variety of European White Elm first described by Rogowicz,^[1] who found the tree in 1856 along the river Dnjepr^[2] near Chernihiv in what is now northern Ukraine. The type specimen is held at the National Herbarium of Ukraine.^[3] The variety was first named as Ulmus pedunculata var. celtidea.^[2] Litvinov (1908) considered it a species, calling it Ulmus celtidea Litv., a view not upheld by other authorities.^[4]

Ulmus laevis var. celtidea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Ulmaceae
Genus:	Ulmus
Species:	U. laevis
Variety:	U. l. var. celtidea
Trinomial name
Ulmus laevis var. celtidea Rogow.

Similar trees were later found near Briansk in Oryol Oblast, but featured larger leaves.^[5]

Description

The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, but only about 25 millimetres (1 in) in length, long-acuminate at the apex, and coarsely, sharply serrate, cuneate and sub-equal at the base. The samarae were also notably smaller than the species.^[6] A 1906 herbarium specimen (leaves and fruit) in the Berlin Botanical Museum labelled U. celtidea Litv., from Orel province, Russia, has, however, leaves to 2 or 3 inches.^[7]

Cultivation

One specimen which grew at the Strona Arboretum, University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, (as Ulmus celtidea Litv.) died circa 2006. The tree was grown from seed collected from a tree at the Arboretum of the Forest-Technical Academy in St. Petersburg in 1961; it is not known whether this source is still alive. No cultivars or hybrid cultivars are known.

Accessions

North America

• Morton Arboretum, US. Acc. no. 1302-27 Grafts (6) from Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University (received as Ulmus laevis var. celtidea).^[4]

Europe

• Royal Botanic Gardens Wakehurst Place, UK. Acc. no. 1973-21047, as Ulmus laevis var. glabra obtained from a grafted tree grown at Kew now lost; provenance notes of the latter have not survived either.

Synonyms

• Ulmus celtidea: Litvinov, Schedae. Herb. Fl. Ross., vi. 167, 1908.
• Ulmus pedunculata var. celtidea. Rogow. 1856.
• Ulmus effusa Will. f. celtidea Rogow.
• (?) Ulmus pedunculata (: laevis) var. glabra: Trautvetter, Bulletin de la Classe physico-mathématique de l'Académie impériale des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, xv. 349 1857 ^[8]