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*Ulmus × hollandica* 'Dauvessei'
Ulmus × hollandica 'Dauvessei'
Hybrid parentage	U. glabra × U. minor
Cultivar	'Dauvessei'
Origin	France

The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Dauvessei', one of a number of cultivars arising from the crossing of the Wych Elm U. glabra with a variety of Field Elm U. minor, is a very rare cultivar said to have originated at the D. Dauvesse nursery in Orléans, France before 1877.^[1]^[2]

Description

According to Henry's description (1913) based on a tree at Kew, the branches ascend to form a broad, pyramidal crown; the leaves bear a resemblance to Wych Elm, but are generally smaller, rarely exceeding 10 cm long by 5 cm wide, and thinner in texture, with petioles nearly 1 cm long.^[3]^[4]^[5] Krüssmann added that the leaf-base was more oblique.^[2]

The US National Arboretum, however, described the 'Dauvessei' that once grew in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., as similar in appearance to English Elm (in its lower latitude growth-form), forking at about 2 metres, reaching about 20 m tall by 18 m broad.^[6] Herbarium specimens from the Washington trees show less elongated, rounder leaves than those at Kew, with fewer vein-pairs.^[7]

Pests and diseases

The tree is susceptible to Dutch elm disease.

Cultivation

There are no confirmed surviving specimens of 'Dauvessei'. A tree obtained from Lee of Hammersmith in 1879 grew at Kew Gardens, where it attained a height of 40 feet (12 m).^[3] In the United States specimens stood along The Mall in Washington D.C. among American Elms on either side of the Reflecting Pool (2009),^[8]^[9] but it is not known whether any survive. A 2018 Cornell University study of the National Mall elms found five possible Ulmus × hollandica there (cultivar unidentified).^[10] A tree acquired from the Nobelius nursery in 1929 and grown at the University of Adelaide Waite Arboretum, Australia, died in 1997; Melville confirmed the 'Dauvessei' identification, reconfirmed by the arboretum in 1992.^[11]

Putative specimen

In the UK a broad pyramidal tree matching 'Dauvessei' descriptions^[3]^[2] and 'Dauvessei' herbarium material from a specimen in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., producing hybrid-type samarae, stands in the east corner of Claremont Park, Leith, by Seafield Place. Its location and tidy shape suggest a named cultivar.^[12]^[13]^[14]

Seafield Place elm
Bole of same
Leaves of same, August
Foliage, October
Samarae of same
Same, spring

Hybrid cultivars

'Dauvessei' was crossed with Ulmus × hollandica, U. glabra, and U. minor in the Dutch elm breeding programme before World War II, but none of the progeny were of particular note and were discarded.^[15]

Synonymy

Ulmus campestris var. Dauvessi Hort.: Lavallée [1], Arboretum Segrezianum 235, 1877.
Ulmus montana var. Dauvessei: Nicholson, Kew Hand-List Trees and Shrubs, 2: 139, 1896.