Ulmus minor 'Plotii'

Ulmus minor 'Plotii'
'Plotii', near Fineshade, 1911
SpeciesUlmus minor
Cultivar'Plotii'
OriginEngland

The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Plotii', commonly known as Lock elm[1][2] or Lock's elm[3][4] (its vernacular names), Plot's elm[5] or Plot elm,[6] and first classified as Ulmus sativa Mill. var. Lockii and later as Ulmus plotii by Druce in 1907-11 (see 'Etymology'), is endemic mainly to the East Midlands of England, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire, in the Trent Valley around Newark-on-Trent,[6] and around the village of Laxton, Northamptonshire. Ronald Melville suggested that the tree's distribution may be related to river valley systems, in particular those of the Trent, Witham, Welland, and Nene.[6] Two further populations existed in Gloucestershire.[7][8] It has been described as Britain's rarest native elm, and recorded by The Wildlife Trust as a nationally scarce species.[9]

As with other members of the Field Elm group, the taxonomy of Plot Elm has been a matter of contention, several authorities, notably Professor Clive A. Stace in New Flora of the British Isles (2010),[10][11][12] recognizing it as a species in its own right. It is as U. plotii Druce that the specimens held by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Wakehurst Place are listed. R. H. Richens, however, contended (1983) that it is simply one of the more distinctive clones of the polymorphous Ulmus minor, conjecturing that it arose as an U. minor sport and that its incidence in the English Midlands may have been linked to its use as a distinctive marker along Drovers' roads.[13]: 54 [14] After Richens had challenged the species hypothesis, the tree was the subject of a study at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh by Dr Max Coleman (2000), which showed that trees a perfect fit with the 'type' material of Plot elm were of a single clone (genetically identical to each other).[15][16] Arguing in a 2002 paper that there was no clear distinction between species and subspecies, and suggesting that known or suspected clones of U. minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, Coleman preferred the designation U. minor 'Plotii'[17] to U. minor var. plotii, a form used in late 20th-century publications.[18]

Alfred Rehder considered Ulmus Plotii Druce to be synonymous with Jonathan Stokes' Ulmus surculosa argutifolia which was located at Furnace Mill near North Wingfield, Derbyshire,[note 1] before 1812.[19][20][21] Earlier still, a herbarium specimen labelled Ulmus angustissima collected in the 1670s by Edward Morgan, the Welsh botanist referred to by Evelyn in his Diary and colleague of Thomas Johnson, was identified by Druce in 1919 as Ulmus plotii.[22] Morgan's source location is not recorded; the nearest Plot Elm (recorded in the 20th century) to his North Wales home was in Shropshire.[6][23][24][25]

Augustine Henry, though he equated the elm with Druce's, miscalled it Goodyer's Elm (U. minor 'Goodyeri'). The trees John Goodyer discovered were near the south coast at Pennington, Hampshire, some 200 miles away from centre of distribution of 'Plotii' and very dissimilar in structure.[26][27][28]

  1. ^ Wright, Joseph (1905). The English dialect dictionary. Vol. 3. p. 637 [637 1.sb. (4)].
  2. ^ Gould, S.C. & L.M. (1901). Notes and Queries. Vol. 7. pp. 229, 353, 453.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BEC1907 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Druce1914 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Druce1911 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d Melville, Ronald (1940). "Contributions to the study of British Elms:- III. The Plot Elm, Ulmus plotii Druce" (PDF). The Journal of Botany. 78: 181–191. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  7. ^ Messenger, Guy (1990). "Plot's elm on the verge of extinction in England?" (PDF). BSBI News. Vol. 55. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  8. ^ Riddelsdell, H J; Hedley, G W; Price, W R (1948). Flora of Gloucestershire. Cheltenham: Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club. p. 432.
  9. ^ Plot’s Elm (Ulmus Plotii). Wildlifebcnp.org. Retrieved on 2012-03-22.
  10. ^ Armstrong, J. V.; Sell, P. D. (1996). "A revision of the British elms (Ulmus L., Ulmaceae): the historical background". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 120: 39–50. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1996.tb00478.x. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  11. ^ Stace, C. A. (1997). New Flora of the British Isles, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.
  12. ^ Melville, R. (1978). "On the discrimination of species in hybrid swarms with special reference to Ulmus and the nomenclature of U. minor (Mill.) and U. carpinifolia (Gled.)". Taxon. 27 (4): 345–351. doi:10.2307/1220370. JSTOR 1220370.
  13. ^ Richens, R. H. (1983). Elm. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521249163.
  14. ^ Max Coleman, ed.: Wych Elm (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh publication, 2009; ISBN 978-1-906129-21-7); p. 22
  15. ^ Coleman, M.; Hollingsworth, M. L. & Hollingsworth, P. M. (2000). "Application of RAPDs to the critical taxonomy of the English endemic elm Ulmus plotii Druce". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 133 (3): 241–262. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2000.tb01545.x.
  16. ^ "Herbarium specimen - E00075691". Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. U. minor Mill., "fitting description of U. plotii Druce (juvenile leaves; Westborough, Lincs., RBGE specimen, 1998); "Herbarium specimen - E00075707". Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. U. minor Mill., "fitting description of U. plotii Druce (juvenile leaves; Laxton, Northants., RBGE specimen, 1998); "Herbarium specimen - E00075704". Herbarium Catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. U. minor Mill., "fitting description of U. plotii Druce (juvenile leaves; Barrowby, Lincs., RBGE specimen, 1998)
  17. ^ Coleman, Max (2002). "British elms". British Wildlife. Vol. 13, no. 6. pp. 390–395.
  18. ^ Kemp, Eddie (1979). "The Plantsman's Elm", in Clouston, Brian; Stansfield, Kathy (eds.), After the Elm; London: Heinemann; p.32
  19. ^ Rehder, Alfred (1949). "Ulmaceae". Bibliography of cultivated trees and shrubs hardy in the cooler temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Jamaica Plain, Mass., Arnold Arboretum of Harvard Univ. p. 143.
  20. ^ Stokes, Jonathan (1812). A botanical materia medica. Vol. 2. pp. 36–37.
  21. ^ Derbyshire Plot elm regrowth, Ashbourne Rd (A52), east of Brailsford - Google Maps, June 2019, access date: 3 January, 2024
  22. ^ Druce, G. C., 'Edward Morgan's Hortus Siccus', in The Bodleian Quarterly Record, vol. 2, nos.13-24, 1917-1919 (Oxford, 1920), pp.227-228
  23. ^ U. plotii, Shawbury, Shropshire; bioportal.naturalis.nl, specimen L.1581978
  24. ^ Plot elms, Shawbury, Shropshire, 1955; francisfrith.com
  25. ^ Plot regrowth at Decker Hill, north of Shifnal, Shropshire - Google Maps, October 2023, access date: March 4, 2024
  26. ^ Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. 7. pp. 1901–1902, Plate 403.
  27. ^ White, J. & More, D. (2002). Trees of Britain & Northern Europe. Cassell's, London.
  28. ^ Chatters, C. (2009) Flowers of the Forest – Plants and people of the New Forest National Park. Wildguides, Old Basing, England. ISBN 978-1-903657-19-5


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