Ulmus 'Umbraculifera'

Ulmus minor cultivar
'Umbraculifera', Netherlands.
Cultivar	'Umbraculifera'
Origin	Iran

The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera' [:shade-giving] was originally cultivated in Iran, where it was widely planted as an ornamental and occasionally grew to a great size, being known there as 'Nalband' Persian: نعلبند‎‎ [:the tree of the farriers].Litvinov considered it a cultivar of a wild elm with a dense crown that he called U. densa, from the mountains of Turkestan, Ferghana, and Aksu. Non-rounded forms of 'Umbraculifera' are also found in Isfahan Province, Iran. Zielińksi in Flora Iranica considered it an U. minor cultivar.

'Umbraculifera' was introduced to Europe in 1878 by the Späth nursery of Berlin, by one account from a German gardener in the employ of the Shah of Persia, by another from M. Scharrer, inspector of Tiflis Imperial Gardens, Georgia. It was subsequently planted along streets in Berlin.

'Umbraculifera' was introduced to the USA in 1912 as "Karagatch" (Ulmus densa syn. U. campestris [:U. minor] 'Umbraculifera') at the USDA's Chico Plant Introduction Station in California by Frank Meyer, who collected it from the Russian imperial estate at Murgrab, Turkestan (see photo taken by Meyer in Notable trees below).

Green mistook Späth's U. turkestanica Regel (the U. 'Turkestanica' of his Register of Cultivars) for a synonym of 'Umbraculifera'. Späth listed U. turkestanica Regel and U. campestris umbraculifera separately in his catalogue of 1903, where 'Umbraculifera' appears as "Ball elm. Transcaucasia, Persia. Needs no pruning. Valuable as a single tree, free-standing in park or street".