Cultivar 'Webbiana' Rank Species | Origin England | |
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The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Webbiana', or Webb's Smooth-leafed Elm, was said by Elwes and Henry to be a form of Cornish Elm, distinguished by its unusual leaves that fold longitudinally. It was raised at Lee's Nursery, Hammersmith, London, circa 1868.
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Henry added that 'Webbiana' "seems to be identical with the insufficiently described U. campestris var. concavaefolia Loudon" (he ignored Loudon's 'Cucullata'). 'Webbiana' and 'Concavaefolia' are carefully distinguished, however, in elm collections of the day, such that of the 1905 Royal Victoria Park, Bath. Green suggested that 'Webbiana' was "possibly to be placed with U. × hollandica".
Herbarium leaf-specimens appear to show two clones (see External links below), one with a long petiole and a 'Stricta'-type leaf curled or folded longitudinally, consistently labelled 'Webbiana' and identified as a form of Field Elm; and a second, with a short petiole and a larger, more deeply toothed, more acuminate, leaf, also curled or folded longitudinally, sometimes renamed 'Webbiana' but "formerly called U. montana [:glabra Huds.] cucullata" or "U. scabra Mill. [:glabra Huds.] var. concavaefolia Dipp.".
Description
'Webbiana', as described by Henry, is "pyramidal in habit, with ascending branches and sparse foliage. The leaves are folded longitudinally, so that most of the upper surface is concealed", but are "in other respects similar to those of var. stricta". The Royal Victoria Park, Bath, where there was a specimen, described 'Webbiana' in 1905 as "an elegant tree". The Ellwanger and Barry Nursery of Rochester, New York also considered it "a handsome variety".
Etymology
The origin of the epithet is obscure, but may commemorate Philip Barker Webb, an English botanist of the early 19th century.
Pests and diseases
The tree is not known to have any significant resistance to Dutch elm disease.
Cultivation
Two 'Webbiana' were planted at Kew Gardens in 1871. One tree was planted in 1899 as U. campestris webbiana at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottowa, Canada. Two specimens are known to survive, one in the United States and one in the UK, treated as a hedging plant to avoid the attentions of the Scolytus beetles that act as vectors of Dutch elm disease. The tree remains in cultivation in Poland.
Notable trees
An elm cultivar, with leaves identical to a Haarlem herbarium specimen labelled 'Webbiana' but "formerly called U. glabra Huds. var. concavaefolia", and to a second herbarium specimen from the Poortbulten Arboretum (1929) labelled 'Cucullata', (girth 2.8 m) stands (2016) in East Preston Street Cemetery, Edinburgh. A second, decayed old tree in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh, is the remains an U. glabra 'Horizontalis' grafted at 2 m on a stock of the same clone as the East Preston Street Cemetery tree. The stock, now 3 m in girth (2016), flushes before the scion on a few ascending branches and bole shoots. It produces no suckers.
North America
Europe
North America
None known