Ulmus glabra 'Insularis'

Ulmus glabra
Possible 'Insularis', Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh, 2016 (photo: Neil Roger).
Cultivar	'Insularis'
Origin	Sweden

The cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Insularis', a fastigiate form of Wych Elm, was identified by Nilsson in Lustgården 30: 127. 1949, as f. insularis.Krüssman noted that the cultivar arose in Sweden.

The tree was described by Nilsson as having a crown rounded elongate-ovoid, and dense, sub-erect branches.

See under Ulmus glabra.

The tree was sometimes planted in botanical collections. Krüssman (1984) contains a photograph of a specimen in the Wageningen Arboretum in the Netherlands.

Two possible mature specimens stood before Wright's Houses, Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh (one survives, 2016). Despite being unpollarded open-grown trees, their branches were mostly steeply ascending, the fastigiate tendency being noticeable also in branchlets. Leaves and samarae typical of the species. Their planting close to buildings suggests that the plantsmen were aware that the trees were not the broad spreading 'Scotch Elm' ubiquitous in the city.

Possible 'Insularis', Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh (October 2016)

Leaves of same