Summary ⁵

Ulmus rubra, the slippery elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America, ranging from southeast North Dakota, east to Maine and southern Quebec, south to northernmost Florida, and west to eastern Texas, where it thrives in moist uplands, although it will also grow in dry, intermediate soils. Other common names include red elm, gray elm, soft elm, moose elm, and Indian elm.

Ulmus rubra is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a spreading head of branches, commonly growing to 40 – 60 feet, very occasionally over 98 ft in height. Its heartwood is reddish-brown. The broad oblong to obovate leaves are 4–8 inches long, rough above but velvety below, with coarse double-serrate margins, acuminate apices and oblique bases; the petioles are 1⁄4–15⁄32 in long. The leaves are often tinged red on emergence, turning dark green by summer and a dull yellow in autumn.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Owen Clarkin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Owen Clarkin
2. (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Zihao Wang
3. (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Douglas Goldman
4. (c) Evan M. Raskin, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Evan M. Raskin
5. Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmus_rubra

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Go Botany
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

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