Common Name: Elms
Description: Trees, rarely shrubs, deciduous or semideciduous, usually developing suckers; leaves of suckers frequently different from adult leaves.
Leaves alternate, pinnately veined (secondary veins often unequal in number on each side of midvein), serrate or crenate, usually oblique at base; stipules extrapetiolar, falling early.
Inflorescence of 3–15 flowers in clusters or cymes, produced before the leaves on short lateral shoots. Flowers bisexual, sometimes functionally unisexual. Perianth 4–8-lobed. Stamens 5 or 6, usually exserted; anthers reniform, extrorse. Ovary compressed, sometimes stipitate; style short; ovule 1.
Fruit a dry usually flattened winged nutlet or samara, the wing membranous. Seeds with straight embryo; endosperm absent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 37 species, native to temperate Eurasia to northern Indo-China, northern Africa and north and central America. Australia: 5 species (naturalised), all states and ACT.
Often cultivated.
Text by P.G. Kodela, H.J. Hewson, adapted by Kerry Gibbons 8 May 2023.
Taxon concept: Flora of Australia Online [accessed 8 May 2023]. Distribution and occurrence: Kew Plants of the World Online; Australian Plant Census [both accessed 8 May 2023].
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Plants not producing suckers, flowering summer to autumn; leaves only slightly oblique, usually less than 5 cm long, upper surface glabrous, margins serrate; samsara without broad wing | Ulmus parvifolia |
| Plants usually spreading via suckers, flowering late winter and spring; leaves strongly oblique, 6–15 cm long, upper surface usually somewhat waxy or firm, margins double-serrate; samsara with a broad wing | Ulmus x hollandica |
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