Ulmus villosa, the cherry-bark elm or Marn elm, is one of the more distinctive Asiatic elms, and a species capable of remarkable longevity. It is endemic to the valleys of the Kashmir at altitudes of but has become increasingly rare owing to its popularity as cattle fodder. Mature trees are now largely restricted to temples and shrines where they are treated as sacred.Melville, R. & Heybroek, H. M. (1971). The Elms of the Himalaya. Kew Bulletin Vol. 26 (1). Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, London. Some of these trees are believed to be over 800 years old.Wadoo, M. S. (2002). Brein - the Trees of Sufis, Saints and Reshies. Kashmir Observer
Description Growing up to high, the tree is rather lightly and pendulously branched, the bark smooth with distinctive horizontal bands of lenticels, although it eventually becomes very coarsely furrowed.Photograph of bark of mature Ulmus villosa, rogerstreesandshrubs.com villosa The oblong-elliptic-acute leaves are less than long by broad. The wind-pollinated apetalous flowers appear in spring, and are particularly densely clustered, the white hairs covering the perianth and ovary contrasting with the purplish anthers. The samarae are elliptic, less than long and densely hairy on both sides.Bean, W. J. (1981). Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain, 7th edition. Murray, London.White, J & More, D. (2003). Trees of Britain & Northern Europe. Cassell's, London.; ; ;
Ecology U. villosa has a low susceptibility to Dutch elm disease and the elm leaf beetle (Xanthogaleruca luteola), but a moderate susceptibility to elm yellows.
Cultivation A tree once grown at Kew Gardens, London, planted in 1935, attained a height of (bole girth 86 cm) and was considered very elegant, although it tended to shed shoots after flowering heavily; it was felled in the early 1990s after succumbing to Dutch elm disease. Two trees planted as part of the UK Forestry Commission's elm trials at the Westonbirt Arboretum in the 1970s also died, although the cause of death has not been recorded. The tree was propagated and marketed by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire from 1971 to 1977, with sales totalling 38.Hillier & Sons (1977). Catalogue of Trees & Shrubs. Hillier, Ampfield, UK.Hillier & Sons Sales inventory 1962 to 1977 (unpublished).
Plantings elsewhere in Europe are few and far between. A line of more than 20 trees survives at Wageningen in the Netherlands, collected by Heybroek in the Himalayas in 1960. Several trees also survive in the Gijsbrecht-Amstelpark area of Amsterdam and in the port. One U. villosa was planted in 2018 in De Vijnen park, Nederhorst den Berg, and a second in the garden of the Loosdrecht town hall, as part of Wijdemeren City Council's elm collection.M. Tijdgat, 'Ulmus – Gebruikswaarde- en sortimentsonderzoek in de praktijk', Dendroflora 56, 2020. p.86; edepot.wur.nlA ten year-old U. villosa was planted in 2024 at the entrance to the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, to replace the 120 year-old 'Belgica' felled there by a storm in 2023.Maarten Moll, 'De Hollandse iep bij de Hortus Botanicus (1900-2023) viel tijdens storm Poly: wat heeft die boom wel niet gezien?', 7 July 2023, parool.nlMaarten Moll, 'De iep is dood, leve de iep: nieuwe boom met bijzonder verhaal siert entree van Hortus Botanicus', 6 June 2024, parool.nl
Notable trees In the UK, the Tree Register (TROBI) champions are at Bute Park, Cardiff, × diameter at breast height (dbh) in 2005, and two at Brighton, both × dbh in 2009. The specimen planted in 1989 at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens at an exposed location on clay has grown more in width than height to form an amorphous (albeit healthy) mound of vegetation; in 2005 it was × dbh.
Accessions
North America Bartlett Tree Experts, US. . Acc. no. 8384.
Europe Brighton & Hove City Council, UK. NCCPG Elm Collection. TROBI champion: Hodshrove Place, 15 m × 65 cm dbh in 2009.Johnson, Owen (ed.) (2011). Champion Trees of Britain & Ireland. Kew Publishing, Grange Farm Arboretum, Lincolnshire. UK. Acc. no. 707. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. Acc. no. 1935-69805. Planted in 1989, a repropagation of the original 1935 introduction to Kew. Royal Botanic Gardens Wakehurst Place, UK. Acc. nos. 1935-69807, 1935-69809. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Romsey, Hampshire, UK. Acc. no. 1989.2869, wild-collected from Sundarnagar Forest, Himachal Pradesh, India. Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, one tree at entrance, planted 2024.
Nurseries
Europe Pan-Global Plants , Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, UK.
References
External links Vegetative propagation of Ulmus villosa, ingentaconnect.com Silvics of Ulmus villosa, cabdirect.org