The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Pendula' was said to have been raised in Belgium in 1863. It was listed as Ulmus sativa pendula by C. de Vos in 1887, and by Boom in 1959 as a cultivar.
Herbarium specimens confirm that more than one field elm clone has been distributed as 'Pendula'. Henry (1913) distinguished "the true var. pendula", with its "dense crown of foliage", from a cultivar Kew called U. glabra Mill. pendula nova, "a common form of [field elm] with drooping branches".Herbarium specimen 295076, herbariaunited.org, U. campestris glabra pendula nova, Kew Gardens specimen, A. Ley (1911) The van Houtte nursery of Ghent distributed an U. campestris pendula from the 1880s,Cultures de Louis van Houtte: Plantes Vivaces de Pleine Terre [Catalogue de Louis van Houtte, 1881-2] p.303 as did various English nurseries,'Standard Ornamental Trees' in Forest, hardy ornamental trees, conifers, etc., Richard Smith & Co., Worcester, 1887–88, p.27 while Späth's of Berlin marketed a small-leaved U. campestris suberosa pendula Hort. from the 1890s.
Krüssman (1984) equated U. minor 'Pendula' with an U. campestris wentworthii, confusing it with the hybrid Wentworth Weeping Elm.Krüssman, Gerd, Manual of Cultivated Broad-Leaved Trees & Shrubs (1984 vol. 3)
Description The tree has slender pendulous branches, with leaves "smooth and glossy above and strongly glandular beneath, with orange-brown sessile glands".Ulmaceae Collection V10, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, determined by P. F. Yeo, 1 September 1965; herbarium specimen in University Herbarium, Botany School, Downing St, Cambridge"Herbarium specimen BR0000010841044". Botanic Garden, Meise. Sheet labelled U. campestris pendula (1904 specimen); Sheet described as "U. carpinifolia Gled. f. 'Pendula' " (with samarae); Sheet labelled U. nitens pendula, Cambridge specimen, showing supernumerary leaves; not 'Smithii'; "Herbarium specimen 295076, herbariaunited.org Sheet labelled U. campestris glabra pendula nova, Kew Gardens specimen, A. Ley (1911) Bean described 'Pendula' as "very vigorous and large-leaved".Bean, W. J., Trees and Shrubs hardy in Great Britain (London, 1988) Green reported that the young twigs are prone to dieback in hard winters.
Henry noted a peculiar feature on outer lower branches of the Kew and Cambridge Botanics specimens – "one or two small supernumerary leaflets at the base of leaves" – a feature of Cambridgemedialib.naturalis.nl/file/id/WAG.1847107/format/large and Maastricht Sheet labelled Ulmus pendula, Maastricht Park specimen, showing supernumerary leaves (1913) herbarium specimens. "Other leaves," he added, "are large and broad, as if composed of two ordinary leaves" and "often cleft from apex to base".
Pests and diseases 'Pendula' is susceptible to Dutch elm disease.
Cultivation 'Pendula' was included in many European botanical collections in the late 19th and early 20th C. It is present in Australasia, its leaves matching old European herbarium specimens labelled U. campestris pendula. U. campestris pendula was introduced to North America, where it featured in the 1902 catalogue of the Bobbink and Atkins nursery, Rutherford, New Jersey, as 'Small-leaved English weeping elm'. The tree listed and illustrated in Bobbink and Atkins' 1909 catalogue as U. campestris microphylla pendula, 'English Weeping Elm' is not the European 'Microphylla Pendula', which has much smaller leaves, but was probably the same cultivar as the nursery's 1902 U. campestris pendula. An U. foliacea pendula was present in the New York Botanical Garden in the early 20th century.sweetgum.nybg.org, U. foliacea pendula A 'Pendula', much trimmed, is present in Brighton, UK.Brighton & Hove City Council elm collection, NCCPG (as U. minor var. pendula): street trees in Stanford Avenue, Shaftesbury Road and Denmark Villas
A notably pendulous small-leaved elm in the JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, North Carolina (2019), labelled Ulmus minor subsp. minor 'Pendula', 'Weeping small-leaved elm', has U. pumila-type fruit and is indistinguishable in leaf and form from U. pumila 'Dwarf Weeper'. The arboretum acquired its specimen from Arborvillage Nursery, Holt, Missouri.Ulmus minor subsp. minor 'Pendula', 'Weeping small-leaved elm', JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, North Carolina
Notable trees A tree in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden from the late 19th to mid 20th C, grafted high on English Elm stock and originally listed as U. nitens, was identified as 'Pendula' by Stearn in 1932.Journ. Bot. 1932, Schedae ad Sertum Cantabrigiense Exsiccatum Decades I—II, p.22 It survived the first DED epidemic, its crown removed after dieback in the late 1940s, and had attained a trunk diameter of 3 ft. by 1962, when it was confirmed as U. carpinifolia Gled. var. 'Pendula' by P. F. Yeo. A notable specimen, planted in 1898,Label, Ulmus minor 'Pendula', Snouck van Loosenpark, Enkhuizen stood in the Snouck van Loosenpark, Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, until it was blown down in 2015. A replacement, cloned from the original by nurseryman Ronnie Nijboer of the Noordplant nursery, Glimmen, was planted there in 2023.Hanneke Tax, "Ulmus minor 'Pendula' terug op oude stek in Enkhuizen" ('Pendula' back in its old spot in Enkhuizen), 11 April 2023 Eight old 'Pendula' line Mulwaree Street, Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, their leaves matching the commonest 20th-century European 'Pendula' clone.Botanic Garden Meise, Herbarium specimen BR0000010841044, U. campestris pendula (1904 specimen) Sheet described as "U. carpinifolia Gled. f. 'Pendula' " The form of the sucker-trees growing around them confirms that the original trees were propagated vegetatively. An old semi-pendulous elm standing by the Bakery Hill roundabout, Ballarat (2025),Bakery Hill elm, Eastwood St South, Ballarat – Google Maps, December 2014, access date: 4 July 2025 propagated and marketed as a "significant elm" by the Mount William Nursery,Bakery Hill elm, Ballarat, in 'Significant Elms', Outdoor Design, outdoordesign.com.au/news-info/significant-elms/4988 may be a different clone from Goulburn's.
Synonymy
U. nitens var. pendula RehderBailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort., 1882 (1902) U. glabra Mill. pendula Sheet described as "U. glabra Mill. f. pendula " [ = U. minor 'Pendula' ] U. carpinifolia Gled. var. 'Pendula' Sheet described as "U. carpinifolia Gled. f. 'Pendula' " (Wageningen Arboretum specimen)
Accessions Europe Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK. Acc. no. 1973-11710 (as U. carpinifolia var. pendula). Grange Farm Arboretum, Lincolnshire, UK. Acc. no. 1136.
Australasia Eastwoodhill Arboretum , Gisborne, New Zealand, 4 trees, acc. details not known.
Nurseries Europe Arboretum Waasland , Nieuwkerken-Waas, Belgium. As U. carpinifolia 'Pendula'.
References