Ulmus 'Berardii'

Description

No tree-photographs of 'Berardii' are known, and descriptions of the cultivar vary. It is said to make a bushy shrub or small tree, but these descriptions date from the early decades of its cultivation, and the parent tree was large. The leaves have been described as very small, very dark green (almost black), and glabrous, 12–18 mm long. Some herbarium specimens, however, show leaves up to 4 or 5 cm long, with 1 cm petioles, while Bean gives 1.5 to 4 cm long by 0.7 to 2 cm wide. They have been described as strongly crenated or deeply incised by relatively few teeth (four to seven); some herbarium specimens, however, show shallowly indented margins. The leaf-base is cuneate and almost symmetrical. The petioles and new shoots are downy. The leaves have been likened to those of Planera crenata, and to those of Zelkova × verschaffeltii. Krüssmann noted that 'Berardii' is late to come into leaf, Carrière that it holds its leaves late into autumn.

Samarae do not appear in any known 'Berardii' herbarium specimens. From their early dates, some of these are likely to show untypical juvenile leaves.

Huberty (1904) stated that there were variegated forms of 'Berardii'.

Pests and diseases

Auguste Chevalier noted that 'Berardii' was one of four European cultivars found by researchers in The Netherlands to have significant resistance to the earlier strain of Dutch elm disease prevalent in the 1920s and '30s, the others being 'Exoniensis', 'Monumentalis' Rinz and 'Vegeta'. The four were rated less resistant than U. foliacea clone 23, from Spain, later cultivated as 'Christine Buisman'.

Cultivation

Carrière noted that the original stock plant was still present in the Simon-Louis nursery in 1887. A specimen was grown at Kew Gardens, obtained from the Späth nursery before the First World War. One tree, supplied by Späth, was planted in 1893 at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa, Canada. Three specimens were supplied by Späth to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1902, and may survive in Edinburgh, as it was the practice of the Garden to distribute trees about the city. 'Berard's Elm', a "small tree, slender in growth, with leaves finely cut", was introduced to the USA c.1871, appearing in the catalogues of the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as Ellwanger and Barry) of Rochester, New York, and of Kelsey's, New York. A specimen stood in the New York Botanical Garden in the early 20th century, and one in the Arboretum national des Barres, Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France, in the mid 20th century. The tree is not known to remain in cultivation, though 51 specimens were reported from the Jūrmalas park in Liepāja, Latvia.

Putative 'Berardii'

An old non-suckering elm in the garden of the Bank of Scotland HQ, Edinburgh, which produces a very small number of 'Berardii'-like leaves among more regular ones, holds its leaves late like 'Berardii', and, in its form, recalls the 'Berardii' sketch and tracery from des Barres, may be one of Späth's 1902 three. It is known that Späth re-sourced some of his elms, rather than cloning them from nursery-stock – his U. campestris cornubiensis is not type-Cornish, his Ulmus campestris viminalis is not 'Viminalis' Loudon, and his Ulmus 'Tiliaefolia' is not 'Tiliaefolia' Host. The original trees were still present on the ramparts at Metz when Späth began cultivating his clone, which he renamed U. campestris Berardii. File:AZ0056 DSC 4176 Market St elm, late April.jpg|Bank of Scotland HQ elm, April File:AZ0056 Leaves unknown Ulmus Market St. Edinburgh (2).jpg|'Berardii'-like leaf (bottom) File:AZ0056 Ulmus. The News Steps, Edinburgh.jpg|Regular leaves File:AZ0056 DSC 4316 range of Market St samarae.jpg|Samarae of same File:AZ0056 DSC 4319 Market St elm bole.jpg|Bole of same (right)

Synonymy

• Ulmus berardii: Simon-Louis Catalogue, 1869, p. 96. fig. 7.

References

References

1. [https://archive.org/stream/revuehorticolejo1887unse#page/62/mode/1up ''Ulmus campestris Berardi'', E.-A. Carrière, ''Revue horticole : journal d'horticulture practique'', Paris 1887; p.63]
2. (1902–1903). "Katalog". L. Späth Baumschulenweg.
3. Späth, Ludwig (1930). ''Späth-Buch'', 1720-1930. Berlin: Self published. pp. 311–313, 351–352
4. [https://archive.org/stream/vHoutte195Arbr#page/n47/mode/2up ''Cultures de Louis van Houtte: Plantes Vivaces de Pleine Terre''] [''Catalogue de Louis van Houtte, 1881-2''] p.303
5. 'Standard Ornamental Trees' in ''Forest, hardy ornamental trees, conifers, etc.'', Richard Smith & Co., Worcester, catalogue 1887–88, p.27
6. Krüssmann, Gerd, ''Manual of Cultivated Broad-Leaved Trees & Shrubs'' (1984 vol. 3)
7. Green, Peter Shaw. (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". [[Arnold Arboretum]], [[Harvard University]].
8. [https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/p/item/p06880833?listIndex=15&listCount=49 science.mnhn.fr Herbarium specimen P06880833]
9. [https://www.plantarium.ru/page/image/id/158747.html 'Berardii'-like ''U. pumila'' (Saratov district, Russia, October 20, 2011); planetarium.russ, image 158747]
10. {{Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Springer]] Herbarium, Haarlem
11. Bean, W. J. (1936) ''Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain'', 7th edition, Murray, London, vol. 2
12. {{Naturalis Biodiversity Center
13. {{Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Springer]] Herbarium, Haarlem; {{Naturalis Biodiversity Center
14. [https://www.archive.org/details/bulletindelasoc01belggoog/page/n433/mode/2up Huberty, J., 'Etude forestière et botanique sur les ormes', ''Bulletin de la Société centrale forestière de Belgique 1904'', p.427]
15. [https://www.plantarium.ru/page/image/id/600525.html Variegated branchlet of 'Berardii'-like ''U. pumila'', Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2013 plantarium.ru, image 600525]
16. (1942). ["Les Ormes de France"](http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/jatba_0370-3681_1942_num_22_254_1721.pdf }}{{Dead link). Revue de botanique appliquée et d'agriculture coloniale.
17. [https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.k000852707 "Herbarium specimen" - plants.jstor.org K000852707] ''Ulmus berardii'', Kew specimen from original plant in Metz nursery (1885)
18. (1913). "The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland".
19. (1899). "Catalogue of the trees and shrubs in the arboretum and botanic gardens at the central experimental farm".
20. {{Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
21. (1902). "Accessions book". Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
22. [https://archive.org/details/ellwangerbarrysc00ellw_0/page/6 'Descriptive Catalogue of Ornamental Trees & Shrubs', no.2, Mount Hope Nursery, Rochester, 1871; p.6]
23. Ellwanger & Barry, ''Descriptive Catalogue of Hardy Ornamental Trees ... at the Mount Hope Nurseries'' (Rochester, N.Y., 1875)
24. [https://archive.org/details/ellwangerbarrymo1898moun/page/62 Ellwanger & Barry (Mount Hope nurseries), Rochester, N.Y., 1898, p.62]
25. (1904). "General catalogue, 1904 : choice hardy trees, shrubs, evergreens, roses, herbaceous plants, fruits, etc.". Frederick W. Kelsey.
26. [http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/vh/specimen_details.php?irn=2683205 sweetgum.nybg.org, New York Botanical Garden ''U. campestris'' var. ''berardii'' (Simon & Louis), 1929]
27. (1949). "Catalogue des espèces cultivées dans l'arboretum des barres". Annales de l'école nationale des eaux et forêts et de la station de recherches et expériences.
28. (2003). "Liepājas rajona koki un krūmi". University of Latvia publishing house.
29. Elwes & Henry, ''Trees of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1913), p.1891
30. RBGE Cultivated herbarium accessions book: Elms cultivated at Edinburgh Botanic Garden (1958), tree C2699
31. Späth's erroneous clone, data.rbge.org.uk, herbarium specimens E00824785, E00824787, E00824880
32. RBGE Cultivated herbarium accessions book: Elms cultivated at Edinburgh Botanic Garden (1958), tree C2706
33. [https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/p/item/p06883137 Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, 'Tiliaefolia' Host, specimen P06883137]
34. [http://data.rbge.org.uk/search/herbarium/?cfg=fulldetails.cfg&specimen_num=838739 RBGE specimen E00824829 'Tiliaefolia' Späth]
35. At least one 'Berardii' herbarium specimen appears to show that the zelkova-like leaves are not unvarying.[http://bioportal.naturalis.nl/specimen/WAG.1853186 bioportal.naturalis.nl, specimen WAG.1853186]