Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

LACEBARK ELM

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Ulmus parvifolia Jacq.

Riley County, Kansas

Height: Trees, to 82 feet

Family: Ulmaceae - Elm Family

Flowering Period: September,October

Also Called:

Chinese elm.

Trunks:

Trunk erect; bark gray, exfoliating in irregular tan, brown, and orange plates; wood reddish brown, hard.

Twigs:

Tan to brown, glabrous, glabrate, or minutely pubescent, flexible; leaf scars half-round; buds reddish brown, cylindric-ovoid, .12 to .16 inch, scales minutely pubescent, margins ciliate.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, simple; stipules caducous, oblanceolate, .06 to .24 inch; petiole .08 to .3 inch, glabrous or minutely pubescent; blade elliptic to ovate or obovate, 1.4 to 2.4 inches long, .6 to 1 inch wide, base obliquely rounded, margins 1(-2)-serrate, apex acute, lower surface light green, glabrate, upper surface dark green, glabrous.

Flowers:

Inflorescences axillary on branches of previous year; fascicles, 2-8-flowered; peduncles 0 to .06 inch; pedicels .08 to .16 inch, more or less equal, nearly glabrous. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals (3-)4-5, connate, calyx tube reddish brown, bell-shaped, .06 to .08 inch, glabrous; petals absent; stamens 3-4, .04 to .06 inch; pistil 1; styles 2, distinct; stigmas 2.

Fruit:

October-November; samaras, green to light brown, elliptic to ovate, flat, .35 to .55 inch long, .2 to .4 inch wide, surfaces glabrous, margins glabrous, apex notched, tips overlapping; seed 1, yellowish brown to brown, compressed-ovoid, .16 to .2 inch long, .12 to .16 inch wide, smooth.

Habitat:

Urban woodlots and greenspaces, pastures, former mined lands, disturbed sites.

Distribution:

Scattered in the wild in the east 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Naturalized

Comments:

Ulmus parvifolia is a fast-growing tree that has gained popularity in recent decades in Kansas as a shade tree. In some parts of the United States, it has become widely naturalized and weedy. As it becomes more widely planted, it likely will increase in abundance in the wild in Kansas. Lacebark elm flowers in the fall rather than in the spring.

Lacebark elm leaves