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Slippery Elm

Ulmus rubra

Summary 6

Ulmus rubra, the Slippery Elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America (from southeast North Dakota, east to Maine and southern Quebec, south to northernmost Florida, and west to eastern Texas). Other common names include Red Elm, Gray Elm, Soft Elm, Moose Elm, and Indian Elm.

Associated forest cover 7

Slippery elm grows over such a wide range of climatic, soil, and  topographic conditions that its associates include more than 60  deciduous tree species. It is a common associate in the forest  cover types Black Oak-American Elm-Red Maple (Society of American  Foresters Type 39), Hawthorn (Type 109), White Oak-Black Oak-  Northern Red Oak (Type 52), and River Birch-Sycamore (Type 61)  (5). It probably also appears in Silver Maple-American Elm (Type  62) and as an occasional tree in several other cover types.  Common associates in uplands include bur, chinkapin, white,  black, and northern red oaks (Quercus macrocarpa, Q.  muehlenbergii, Q. alba, Q. velutina, and Q. rubra); shagbark,  bitternut, mockernut, and pignut hickories (Carya ovata, C.  cordiformis, C. tomentosa, and C. glabra); sugar,  red, and silver maples (Acer saccharum, A. rubrum, and A.  saccharinum); boxelder (A. negundo); white ash  (Fraxinus americana); American elm (Ulmus americana);  blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica); basswood (Tilia  americana); black cherry; black walnut (Juglans nigra);  hackberry (Celtis occidentalis); and honeylocust (Gleditsia  triacanthos). On periodically flooded lowlands slippery elm  commonly occurs with silver and red maple, American elm, eastern  cottonwood (Populus deltoides), sycamore (Platanus  occidentalis), hackberry, blackgum, and honeylocust.

    Common understory species of slippery elm stands include  blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis); black raspberry (R.  occidentalis); prickly, hairystem, and Missouri gooseberries  (Ribes cynosbati, R. hirtellum, and R. missouriense);  roundleaf, alternate-leaf, redosier, gray, and flowering  dogwoods (Cornus rugosa, C. alternifolia, C. stolonifera, C.  racemosa, and C. florida); beaked hazel (Corylus  cornuta); American hazelnut (C. americana); Atlantic  leatherwood (Dirca palustris); ninebark (Physocarpus  spp.); climbing bittersweet (Celastrus scandens);  Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia); grape  (Vitis spp.); American and redberry elders (Sambucus  canadensis and S. pubens); nannyberry (Viburnum  lentago); blackhaw (V. prunifolium); witch-hazel  (Hamamelis virginiana); poison-ivy (Toxicodendron  radicans); American bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia); coralberry  (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus); wild hydrangea (Hydrangea  arborescens); eastern burningbush (Euonymus  atropurpureus); and trailing wahoo (E.obovatus)  (4,11).

Climate 8

Annual precipitation generally increases from northwest to  southeast across the range of slippery elm (11). It averages  about 530 mm (21 in) along the North Dakota-Minnesota boundary  and about 2110 mm (83 in) at higher elevations in North Carolina.  Warm season precipitation ranges from 410 to 1040 mm. (16 to 41  in), and snowfall from very rare in the South to 254 cm (100 in)  or more in the North. Average annual temperature ranges from 4°  to 21° C (40° to 70° F), average January  temperature from -15° to 12° C (5° to 54° F),  and average July temperature from 16° to 27° C (60°  to 80° F). The length of the frost-free period ranges from  90 to 280 days.

Comments 9

Scabrous-leaved Ulmus rubra is often confused with U . americana . Where ranges coincide, U . rubra may freely intergrade with Ulmus pumila Linnaeus, a widely introduced species. 

 The red-rust, mucilaginous inner bark of Ulmus rubra is distinctive; its sticky slime gives this tree its common name of slippery elm. Native American tribes used Ulmus rubra for a wide variety of medicinal purposes, including inducing labor, soothing stomach and bowels, treating dysentary, coughs, colds, and catarrhs, dressing burns and sores, and as a laxative (D. E. Moerman 1986). Various preparations utilizing it are still marketed.

Damaging agents 10

Excluding insect species that feed only  on American elm, more than 125 insect species feed on trees in  the elm genus (1). Bark beetles and wood borers generally cause  little damage to vigorous trees although some can ultimately kill  weakened or diseased trees. They also introduce stain and rot  organisms into dead trees and manufactured products. The spread  of Dutch elm disease is the most detrimental effect of bark   beetle feeding. The smaller European elm bark beetle (Scolytus  multistriatus) is the primary vector of this disease in the  United States, but the native elm bark beetle (Hylurgopinus  rufipes, Scolytus mali, and Xylosandrus germanus) are  also able to transmit it.

    Only a few defoliators feed exclusively on elms and even fewer  feed exclusively on slippery elm. The elm calligrapha (Calligrapha  scalaris), the elm leaf beetle (Pyrrhalta luteola), the  larger elm leaf beetle (Monocesta coryli), Canarsia  ulmiarrosorella, an elm casebearer (Coleophora  u1mifoliella), Nerice bidentata, and one species of the genus  Macroxyela usually feed only on elms. Slippery elm is  especially favored by the larger elm leaf beetle. Elms are  preferred hosts for Dasychira basiflava, fall cankerworm  (Alsophila pometaria), spring cankerworm (Paleacrita  vernata), whitemarked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma),  the yellownecked caterpillar (Datana ministra), and  the elm sawfly (Cimbex americana). Although larvae of the  gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) will feed on leaves of  slippery elm, it is not a preferred host.

    Sucking insects that feed exclusively on elm or prefer elm to most  other species include elm cockscombgall aphid (Colopha  ulmicola), Tetraneura u1mi, European elm scale (Gossyparia  spuria), elm scurfy scale (Chionaspis americana), elm  leaf aphid (Tinocallis ulmifolii), woolly apple aphid  (Eriosoma lanigerum), and woolly elm bark aphid (E.  rileyi). The gall aphid (Kaltenbachiella u1mifusa) is  limited to slippery elm. The whitebanded elm leafhopper (Scaphoideus  luteolus) is the principal vector of elm phloem necrosis.

    Slippery elm has many of the same diseases as American elm (6). It  is attacked and killed by Dutch elm disease caused by the fungus  Ceratocystis ulmi. It is also killed by elm yellows or  elm phloem necrosis (a mycoplasma-like organism) throughout much  of its range. These two diseases are so virulent and widespread  that slippery elm seldom reaches commercial size and volume as a  forest tree and it is being replaced as a street tree in many  localities. A dieback caused by Dothiorella ulmi is  widespread from New England to Mississippi and has often been  confused with Dutch elm disease. A leaf spot caused by Gnomonia  ulmea, brown wood rot caused by Pleurotus ulmarius, white  flakey rot caused by P.ostreatus, ustulina butt  rot caused by Ustulina vulgaris, slimeflux and wetwood  caused by Erwinia nimipressuralis, and nectria canker  caused by Nectria galligena all attack slippery elm. In a  survey in Davidson County, TN, infestations of mistletoe (Phoradendron  flavescens) were more numerous on slippery elm than on any  other species except American elm and white ash.

    Slippery elm is also damaged by several other agents. In mixed  hardwood stands, bark stripping by deer is more frequent on  slippery elm than on other species. Bark stripping occurred most  frequently on stems of saplings and on roots of pole-sized  trees(9). Slippery elm also suffers crown breakage following  severe ice storms in Wisconsin (3).

Description 11

General: Elm Family (Ulmaceae). This graceful, arching tree reaches 20 m, with twigs that are scabrous-pubescent. It can live to be 200 years old and is identified by its "slippery" inner bark. The winter-buds are densely covered with red-brown hairs. The leaves are oblong to obovate, thick and stiff and 10-20 cm. They are pinnately veined and not equilateral. The flowers are subsessile in dense fascicles with 5-9 stamens. They appear before the leaves in the spring. The fruit is a flat, 1-seeded samara. It is suborbicular, 1.5-2 cm and pubescent over the seed.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Joshua, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/74215305@N00/2405531657
  2. (c) Dan Mullen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/8583446@N05/7149197551/
  3. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/natureserve/13412555744/
  4. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/natureserve/15527390182/
  5. (c) Kent McFarland, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/vtebird/8421932863/
  6. Adapted by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmus_rubra
  7. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779610
  8. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779608
  9. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19825265
  10. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779617
  11. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/1396610

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