Cultivar 'Cucullata' | Origin England | |
Similar Ulmus minor 'Purpurascens', Ulmus minor 'Propendens', Ulmus minor 'Schuurhoek', Ulmus 'Recerta', Ulmus minor 'Goodyeri' | ||
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Cucullata', the Hooded elm, was listed by Loddiges (Hackney, London) in the catalogue of 1823 as Ulmus campestris cucullata, and later by Loudon in Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, 3: 1378, 1838, as U. campestris var. cucullata.
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Description
Loudon described the tree as having "leaves curiously curved, something like a hood". He thought the tree resembled U. minor 'Concavaefolia'.
Pests and diseases
The tree has no resistance to Dutch elm disease.
Cultivation
'Cucullata' is rare in cultivation. One tree was planted in 1897 at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottowa, Canada. Three specimens were supplied by the Späth nursery to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1902 as U. campestris 'Cucullata'; specimens may survive in Edinburgh, as it was the practice of the Garden to distribute trees about the city (viz. the Wentworth Elm); the current list of Living Accessions held in the Garden per se does not list the plant. One at the Ryston Hall arboretum [3], Norfolk, obtained from Späth c.1920, was killed by the earlier strain of Dutch elm disease prevalent in the 1930s. The cultivar is not known to have been introduced to Australasia.
A cultivar matching the description of 'Cucullata' stands in Victoria Park, Portslade (see gallery below). The same clone survives (2016, girth 2.2 m) in Duncan Place, Edinburgh (see gallery). Another specimen, now gone (2016), was reported (1990) from Holyrood Gait, near Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh.
A herbarium leaf-spray specimen from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh shows the Portslade and Edinburgh clone, but labels it U. racemosa. Since U. racemosa and U. campestris 'Cucullata' are listed separately in the Späth 1902 consignment to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, as they are in Späth's 1903 catalogue, where the former is listed as U. racemosa Thomas, a synonym of U. thomasii, the herbarium specimen or the tree it was taken from appears to have been mis-labelled. A concave-leaved tree labelled U racemosa in RBGE was determined by Melville in 1958 as U. carpinifolia × U. plotii [:U. minor × U. minor 'Plotii']. If, as the evidence suggests, this was one of the three 'Cucullata', only two will have been planted in the city outside the Garden.
A second herbarium leaf-specimen from the Poortbulten Arboretum (1929) of a cultivar with leaves curled or folded longitudinally (a clone currently supposed U. 'Webbiana' in Edinburgh) is labelled "U. carpinifolia Gled. cv. 'Cucullata' (Loudon), formerly called U. montana cucullata".
Varieties
A variegated form, U. minor 'Cucullata Variegata', was also in cultivation from the late 19th century.