Ulmus 'Wentworthii'

Ulmus cultivar
'Wentworth Elm', Holyrood Palace gardens
Cultivar	'Wentworthii Pendula'
Origin	Unknown

Ulmus 'Wentworthii Pendula', also spelt 'Wendworthii Pendula' in continental Europe, commonly known as the Wentworth Elm, is a cultivar with a distinctive weeping habit which appears to have been introduced to cultivation towards the end of the 19th century. Little is known of its history; indeed, the tree is not mentioned in either Elwes & Henry's or Bean's classic works on British trees. The earliest known references are Dutch and German, the first by de Vos in 1890. At about the same time, the tree was offered for sale by the Späth nursery of Berlin, suggesting it was, in spite of its very English name, of German origin (see Etymology). de Vos, writing in 1889, states that the Supplement to Volume 1 includes entries announced since the main volume in 1887, putting the date of introduction between 1887 and 1889. De Vos dismissed the tree as '..one we can do without. As ornamentals, U. pitteurs pendula {:Zelkova × verschaffeltii} and U. suberosa pendula {:U. 'Lombartsii'} are far prettier, and as a (weeping) arbor U. montana pendula {:U. glabra 'Horizontalis'} is by far the most beautiful.'

John Frederick Wood, F.H.S., in The Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist (1851), had described an U. Pendula Superba, 'The Superb Weeping Elm', "A really beautiful pendulous tree, with very large foliage, and weeping in the same style as the Weeping Ash". Though Wood's list distinguishes the tree from weeping wych, and though the very large leaves and Weeping-Ash habit accord with those of 'Wentworthii Pendula', it is not known whether this British tree was related to Wentworth Elm.

References to the possible botanical provenance of the Wentworth Elm are found in the Ulmus 'Names' lists of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. At Kew, the cultivar was labelled Ulmus × hollandica 'Wentworthii'. Melville dismissed the Kew specimen as simply Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta' (the lower branches of open-grown Huntingdon elms can also be pendulous), though Wentworth Elm differs in form, leaf and bark from true Huntingdon. At RBGE Wentworth Elm (RBGE ref. no. 32931) was identified as a hybrid (U. × hollandica) of the Huntingdon Elm and Plot's Elm. However, given the tree's assumed origin in continental Europe, it is difficult to reconcile this hybrid conjecture with the fact that 'Plotii' was never known to have been grown beyond the UK. A Wageningen Arboretum herbarium leaf-specimen that appears identical to 'Wentworthii' (see 'External links') was labelled U. × hollandica 'Pendula'.