american elms and its clones?

slikk03

i live in centrel illinois and have noticed there are alot of very healthy elms around that are over 100 years old. theese trees are on an elavated town and they do not show any sighns of the fungus. what are the odds of theese trees surviving for 20 more years? Also i am wanting to plant a cultavar but i want to know if any of theese clones have the draping branches like alot of the originals?

richie

The Chinese elm (U. parvifolia) and the Siberian elm (U. pumila) are the most
resistant species, but natural infections of these species and their hybrids sometimes occur in Illinois.
Some of the better, highly resistant (but not immune) elms now available include Sapporo Autumn Gold, American Liberty, and Urban elms.
Without knowing what type of elm tree they are, its difficult to predict if they will survive another 20 years. If they are kept in good health and free of stress, the fact that they have survived so far suggests that they would have a good chance.

Contact your local University of Illinois extension agent. They might be able to give you some local knowledge on the trees.

slikk03

they are ulimis americana, very prone to DED, sorry i forgot to add the species. theese trees are more oak like in the crown but yet vase like. they are not a cultivar or a hybrid. but they all show some sighns of DED but have for 60 years. if theese trees are resistant to a degree i would like to know were i could report them to have them tested. let me upload some photos of theese. note that they look a bit like the siberian elm a bit but are not.

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slikk03

another old american elm.

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Jeroen Shiran

The problem with the clones is that they don't look like the traditional American elm. The Ulmus americana 'princeton' is a regular american elm that has shown high resistance, it was my choice when I planted American Elm. However, you never know with DED. If the trees are without stress, like Richie said, they can live quite some time. However, if there is a big outbreak with many infected beetles flying, it can be dead within a week. I've seen it happen to Elms this size myself.

Little is known about what causes these outbreaks. Usually some stress factors are at play, or were the year before, like an extremely long stretch of drought or extremely low temps in the spring, etc.

slikk03

the princton does not look like an elm at all. but would vally forge? we are wanting to get one of the cultivars but i wish i could see the mature vally forge to see if it looks like theese. the princtons look like an ash tree and nothing like an american elm. there must be one clone that looks like theese since they were infact cloned from american elms. i would place my bet on vally forge judging by its form at the test plot. however why dont theese clones have draping branching patterns? is this due to the young age ? i just want to find one that has the vase like and draping branches to plant and i dont know what clone has a good shape. thanks again

Brent Ferris

Most young american elms don't have the typical vase shape. That develops later. I presume the clones act the same way. I am not familiar with the various varieties, but clones don't necessarily mean exact copies. The people cloning the trees are looking for disease resistance, and if that can be a success, then they might be able to work on shape.

As I understand it, stressed elm trees (and other species) exude chemicals (pheromone-like) that signal to the world it is dying, purportedly to attract pathogens to it, and hopefully leave the healthy trees alone. Generally this seems to work fairly well -- except with DED. Herein, as the population grows, the beetles seem to go berserk and want to attack all the elms in an area. Maybe we should clone calmer beetles. LOL

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slikk03

thanks for the reply...i think i am going to go with vally forge, princton elms are not a good looking tree. i have not seen the tree it was cloned from though just the stump