Ulmus × hollandica 'Wentworthii Pendula'

Ulmus × hollandica 'Wentworthii Pendula'
'Wentworth Elm', Holyrood Palace gardens
Hybrid parentage	U. glabra × U. minor
Cultivar	'Wentworthii Pendula'
Origin	Unknown

Ulmus × hollandica 'Wentworthii Pendula' (in continental Europe also spelled 'Wendworthii Pendula'), commonly known as the Wentworth Elm or Wentworth Weeping Elm, is a cultivar with a distinctive weeping habit that appears to have been introduced to cultivation towards the end of the 19th century. The tree is not mentioned in either Elwes and Henry's^[1] or Bean's^[2] classic works on British trees. The earliest known references are Dutch and German, the first by de Vos in Handboek tot de praktische kennis der voornaamste boomen (1890).^[3] At about the same time, the tree was offered for sale by the Späth nursery of Berlin as Ulmus Wentworthi pendula Hort.^[4][5][6] (see Etymology). The 'Hort.' in Späth's 1890 catalogue, without his customary label "new", confirms that the tree was by then in nurseries as a horticultural elm.^{[note 1]} 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 suggested that the tree was a form of Ulmus × hollandica,^[7] a view accepted in the Ulmus names lists of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. At Kew, the cultivar was labelled Ulmus × hollandica 'Wentworthii'.^[8] Melville dismissed the Kew specimen as Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta'^[7] (the lower branches of open-grown Huntingdon elms can also be pendulous^[9]), though Wentworth Elm differs strikingly in form, leaf and bark from Huntingdon. Richens and Rackham noted that examples of pendulous Ulmus × hollandica occur in the East Anglian hybridization zone.^[10][11]

At RBGE, Wentworth Elm (RBGE ref. no. 32931) was identified as a hybrid of the Huntingdon Elm and Plot's Elm. A Wageningen Arboretum herbarium leaf-specimen that appears identical to 'Wentworthii' (see 'External links') was labelled U. × hollandica 'Pendula'.

Description

A tall, conspicuously pendulous tree, bell-shaped when young, domed when older. The outer branchlets hang in long 'curtains', showing the 'bones' above the foliage^[12] rather like Ulmus glabra 'Horizontalis', with large deeply toothed hybrid leaves, some up to 17 cm (7 in) long.^[13][14] The upper leaf surface is glossy and very sparsely hairy. The petiole at <5 mm is shorter than that of Huntingdon Elm. The bark of mature trees is shallowly fissured,^[12] unlike the deeply fissured, often 'latticed' bark of Huntingdon. The tightly-clustered, apetalous wind-pollinated flowers are bright red, and appear in early spring. The seed is displaced towards the apex of the samara.

• 
  Samarae of Wentworth Weeping Elm, Holyrood Palace gardens
• 
  Leaf of 'Wentworthii Pendula', Kew Gardens^[8]
• 
  'Wentworthii Pendula' leaves with rule, Holyrood Palace gardens
• 
  'Wentworthii Pendula' leaves, Holyrood Palace gardens
• 
  Pendulous shoots of Holyrood Palace gardens tree
• 
  Bole of same
• 
  Bark of same

Pests and diseases

The tree is susceptible to Dutch elm disease (DED).

Cultivation

'Wentworthii Pendula' is extremely rare in cultivation. 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".^[3] Späth, though he used Ulmus montana for both Wych Elm cultivars and, more rarely, for those of U. × hollandica, listed the tree from 1890 to 1902 simply as Ulmus Wentworthi pendula,^[15] then from 1903 to 1910 as a Field Elm cultivar, Ulmus campestris Wentworthi pendula or Ulmus campestris wentworthiensis, despite its hybrid leaf and samara.^[5][6] The tree is absent from his post-war catalogues.^[16][17][18] The specimens held at Kew Gardens and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh succumbed to DED towards the end of the 20th century. The latter was one of the very few RBGE elms to keep its old cultivar name in Melville's wholesale "scientific" revision of elm nomenclature and taxonomy there in 1958.^[19] In 2016 two old plantings were discovered elsewhere in Edinburgh (see Notable Trees below), and are the only survivors known worldwide. Exported to North America, one specimen, probably sourced from Späth, was planted at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, in 1897,^[20] while the tree featured in the early 20th-century catalogues of the Bobbink and Atkins nursery, Rutherford, New Jersey.^{[21][22][23][24]} The Wentworth Elm is not known to have been introduced to Australasia.

Notable trees

Two old Wentworth Elms, with girths over 3 metres (9.8 ft), believed to have been planted c.1909,^[25] stand in the gardens of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (2016), on the main lawn to the east of the palace.^[15][12] Two of the three specimens supplied to the RBGE by Späth in 1902, the taller is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height; the shorter was lightly pruned c.2015. A third tree at Holyrood Palace was felled in 2008 due to Dutch Elm Disease and a ring count indicated an origin of approximately 1905.^[26] Despite the dearth of textbook descriptions, the trees were confidently identified as 'Wentworthii Pendula' in a RBGE survey (2016),^[27] because their leaves and branchlets match old photographs of the type^[14] and because no other large-leaved weeping hybrid elm appears in the cultivar lists of the time. Their lower branchlets 'routinely touch the ground' and are kept trimmed,^[27] as was the case with the 'Wentworthii Pendula' at the RBGE. The origin of this specimen, a much younger tree acquired in 1974 but killed by DED in 1996, is recorded only as 'Wiseman', possibly the Wiseman Nursery at Elgin, Moray.^[28]

• 
  Wentworth Elm (left), Holyrood Palace gardens, Edinburgh (2014)
• 
  Second Wentworth Elm, Holyrood Palace, June 2010 (free-standing tree to right of palace)
• 
  Pruned 'Wentworthii Pendula' at Holyrood
• 
  'Wentworth Elm', Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, planted 1974, killed by DED 1996

Etymology

The tree is possibly named for Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest Classical house in Britain, or the architect of its grounds, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham,^[29] or for the nearby Wentworth Castle. However, there is no recorded association of the tree with the estate and it may, in view of its predominant German association, have been named for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1672–1739), Queen Anne's ambassador to the Prussian court, a much esteemed figure in Berlin during the wars with Louis XIV of France.

There is also a rare weeping ash cultivar called Wentworth, Fraxinus excelsior 'Pendula Wentworthii',^[30][31][32] though it is not known whether the name is related. Regarding the ash, Koch suggested in 1872 that 'Wentworth' may have been a corruption of 'Hepworth', the name of the vicar in Gamlingay on whose land the original 'Pendula Wentworthii' ash tree grew in the middle of the eighteenth century.^[33] The fact that the Wentworth ash appeared in print before the Wentworth elm may suggest a marketing decision of late 19th century nurseries to apply the same name to a not dissimilar tree.

Synonymy

• Ulmus campestris wendworthiensis Hort.: Schelle in Beissner et al., Handbuch der Laubholz-Benennung 84. 1903.
• Ulmus campestris wentworthiensis: Späth nursery, (Berlin, Germany), Cat. 143, p. 135, 1910–11.
• Ulmus campestris 'Wentworthii': Dippel [1], Illustriertes Handbuch der Laubholzkunde, 2:24, 1892.
• Ulmus wendworthii pendula: C. de Vos [2], Handboek, Supplement, 16, 1890.
• Ulmus campestris 'Pendula': Krüssman, Gerd, Manual of Cultivated Broad-Leaved Trees & Shrubs (1984, vol. 3, p. 406)

Notes

References

Species, varieties and subspeciesDisputed species, varieties and subspeciesHybridsSpecies cultivars

American elm	American Liberty Ascendens Augustine Aurea Beaverlodge Beebe's Weeping Brandon Burgoyne JFS Prince II College Columnaris Creole Queen Deadfree Delaware Exhibition Fiorei Flick's Spreader Folia Aurea Variegata Great Plains Hines Incisa Independence Iowa State Jackson Jefferson Kimley Klehmii L'Assomption Lake City Lewis & Clark Littleford Maine Markham Miller Park Minneapolis Park Moline Morden New Harmony Nigricans Patmore Pendula Penn Treaty Princeton Pyramidata Queen City Sheyenne Skinner Upright St. Croix Star Valley Forge Variegata Vase Washington
Cedar elm	Brazos Rim
Chinese elm	A-1 A. Ross Central Park Blizzard BSNUPF Burgundy Burnley Select Catlin Chessins Churchyard Cork Bark D. B. Cole Drake Dynasty Ed Wood Elsmo Emer I Emer II Emerald Prairie Frosty Garden City Clone Geisha Glory Golden Rey Hallelujah Hokkaido Jade Empress King's Choice Littleleaf Lois Hole Matthew Milliken Nire-keyaki Ohio Orange Ribbon Pathfinder Pendens Prairie Shade Prince Richard Red Fall Sabamiki Sagei Seiju Select 380 Sempervirens Small Frye State Fair Stone's Dwarf Taiwan The Thinker Todd True Green UPMTF Ware's Yarralumla Yatsubusa Zettler Ulmus parvifolia f. lanceolata
European white elm	Aureovariegata Colorans Helena Ornata Pendula Punctata Urticifolia
Field elm	Ademuz Albo-Dentata Amplifolia Argenteo-Variegata Atinia Atinia Pyramidalis Atinia Variegata Bea Schwarz Biltii Christine Buisman Concavaefolia Coritana Cretensis Cucullata Cucullata Variegata Dehesa de Amaniel Dehesa de la Villa Dicksonii Dijkwel Erecta Folia Alba-Punctata Glandulosa Goodyeri Hoersholmiensis Holmstruph Hunnybunii Hunnybunii pseudo-Stricta Laciniata Lanuginosa Majadahonda Microphylla Pendula Microphylla Purpurea Microphylla Rubra Monumentalis Pendula Picturata Plotii Propendens Punctata Purpurascens Purpurea Retiro Reverti Rugosa Rueppellii Sarniensis Schuurhoek Silvery Gem Sowerbyi Stricta Suberosa Umbraculifera Gracilis Umbraculifera Viminalis Viminalis Aurea Viminalis Betulaefolia Viminalis Gracilis Viminalis Incisa Viminalis Marginata Viminalis Pendula Viminalis Pulverulenta Viminalis Stricta Virgata Webbiana
Japanese elm	Discovery Freedom Jacan JFS-Bieberich Mitsui Centennial Prospector Reperta Reseda Thomson Validation
Siberian elm	Ansaloni Aurea Aurescens Chinkota Dropmore Dwarf Weeper Green King Hansen Harbin Manchu Mauro Mr. Buzz Park Royal Pendula Pinnato-ramosa Poort Bulten Puszta Pyramidalis Fiorei Zhonghua Jinye
Winged elm	Lace Parasol
Wych elm	Albo-Variegata Australis Camperdownii Cebennensis Concavaefolia Cornuta Corylifolia Purpurea Corylifolia Dovaei Fastigiata Macrophylla Fastigiata Stricta Fastigiata Variegata Firma Flava Gigantea Gittisham Grandidentata Holgeri Horizontalis Insularis Latifolia Latifolia Aurea Latifolia Aureo-Variegata Latifolia Nigricans Luteo Variegata Lutescens Macrophylla Maculata Minor Nana Nigra Nitida Oblongata Pendula Macrophylla Pendula Variegata Pyrenaica Spectabilis Superba Tomentosa

Hybrid cultivars

Androssowii Amsterdam Arno Cathedral Clusius Columella Den Haag Dodoens Escaillard Fiorente Frontier Fuente Umbria Homestead Karagatch Lobel Morfeo Morton Morton Glossy Morton Plainsman Morton Red Tip Morton Stalwart Nanguen New Horizon Patriot Plantyn Plinio Rebella Rebona Recerta Regal Repura Revera San Zanobi Sapporo Autumn Gold Sapporo Gold 2 Stavast Toledo Urban Wanoux Wingham
Dutch elm	Alba Angustifolia Balder Belgica Blandford Canadian Giant Cicestria Cinerea Commelin Dampieri Dauvessei Daveyi Dumont Elegantissima Eleganto-Variegata Etrusca Fastigiata Fjerrestad Folia Rhomboidea Freja Fulva Gaujardii Groeneveld Haarlemensis Klemmer Loke Macrophylla Aurea Major Microphylla Modiolina Muscaviensis Odin Pioneer Pitteurs Serpentina Smithii Superba Tricolor Tyr Vegeta Viminalis Viscosa Wentworthii Pendula Wredei Ypreau
U. × intermedia	Coolshade Fremont Improved Coolshade Lincoln Rosehill Willis

Unconfirmed derivation cultivarsFossil elms