The Field ElmcultivarUlmus minor 'Hoersholmiensis', Hoersholm elm, originated from seed sown at the Hørsholm Planteskole, Denmark, c. 1885, where it was propagated by the nursery proprietor Lars Nielsen.[1][2] The Späth nursery of Berlin, however, which marketed 'Hoersholmiensis' in the interwar period, considered it a hybrid rather than a form of field elm,[3] a view shared by Christine Buisman, who in 1931 labelled a herbarium specimen from a Späth-sourced tree in The Hague as a form of Ulmus × hollandica.[4]
Description
Upright-columnar in habit and rapid in growth when young, the tree becomes more globose with age.[5] The leaves, 8 – 14 cm long by 3 – 5 cm wide,[1] are lanceolate or narrowly obovate, acuminate at the tip and with a cuneate base, light green in colour,[6][7] turning a deep yellow (sometimes following a brief orange-red) in autumn.[8] The samara is heart-shaped, with marginal seed by a markedly open notch.
Mature trees, Spelderslaan, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
The tree is cultivated in Denmark, Sweden,[9] Finland,[10] and the Netherlands. In Denmark it is usually propagated by base-grafting on wych elm;[1] here the oldest known plantation was 65 trees on the Tuborgvej, Copenhagen, planted in 1906. The Späth nursery of Berlin distributed 'Hoersholmiensis' from the late 1920s.[1] In the Netherlands it was planted notably along the Westlandsgracht in Amsterdam where it still survives, although upper branches are often killed by Coral-spot Fungus. Heybroek, having observed in 1957 its wind-resistance in Schleswig-Holstein, included Hoersholm elm in his breeding programme (see 'Hybrid cultivars' below). Fontaine confirmed it a useful wind-break tree.[10] The tree was briefly propagated and marketed in the UK by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire, from 1974 to 1977, during which time 187 were sold.[11][12]
Notable trees
Fine unpruned specimens stand in Stockholm, in Raoul Wallenberg square and the Karlaplan.[13]
'Hoersholmiensis' in the Karlaplan, Stockholm (2005)
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