Ulmus glabra 'Superba'

Ulmus glabra 'Superba'
Leaf-drawing (1848) of Osborne and Morren's 'Superba', leaves to 26 × 15  cm.
Species	Ulmus glabra
Cultivar	'Superba'
Origin	England

The putative Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Superba' was first described in 1848 by Morren, as U. montana var. superba , an elm with unusually large leaves. Morren had adopted the name 'Superba' from the Fulham nurseryman Osborne in 1844, who supplied him with the tree. Morren states that 'Superba', already in cultivation in England, was introduced to Belgium by Denis Henrard of Saint Walburge, Liège, that in 1848 it had been present in Belgium for only three years, and that this variety was the one described as 'Superba' by Osborne, whom Henrard had visited at his nursery in Fulham in September 1844. Gill's of Blandford distributed an U. montana superba at much the same time – from 1845 – known to some nurseries as Blandford Elm, with large leaves of the same dimensions.

The Späth nursery in Berlin supplied a large-leavedU. montana superba from 1885 to the 1930s. H. Jensen examined the tree at Späth's nursery and confirmed (1912) that it was identical to Morren's Ulmus montana superba. Späth's catalogue of 1911–12, however, had erroneously claimed that an U. praestans E. Schoch was synonymous with Morren's U. montana superba.Hartwig, who received specimens of U. praestans from Kiessling of the Magdeburg city nursery in 1908, said (1912) that "Ulmus montana superba, supposedly the same [as U. praestans], looks quite different when young, being wide with large, broad, dull green leaves, whereas ... U. praestans show an elongated medium-sized shiny green leaf and densely pyramidal crown". He concluded that U. praestans was not Ulmus montana superba. Späth admitted the error in an article in Möller's Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung (1912), where he stated that U. praestans E. Schoch was an U. × hollandica hybrid, and implied that Morren's tree was a form of U. montana (Wych Elm). In later catalogues the nursery distinguished between Morren's Ulmus montana superba and the hybrid U. praestans E. Schoch (for which he adopted Henry's synonym Ulmus superba Henry), marketing both cultivars in the post-war period.